Steam’s Game Festivals have always been rad. Even before the pandemic of 2020, having a platform dedicate so much time and space to highlighting and celebrating a gigantic spread of upcoming games was great! You couldn’t make it down to E3 or Gamescom? Why both heading out at all when there were over 200 demos right there on Steam? Plus, there were far less queues stuffed with sweaty nerds; what a dream! It seems like Steam is looking at rebranding the whole event, choosing to now call it Steam Next Fest while simultaneously announcing that the latest iteration will run from June 16-22.
It’s still quite some time away but folks will have a full six days of new gameplay videos, downloadable demos and developer interviews to look forward to. Previous Game Festivals have gone down really well, with Valve’s servers seemingly made out of vibranium in withstanding what is most likely a massive surge of users onto the platform. Even better is that Steam Next Fest will be taking place nearly exactly when E3 does its whole song and dance every year; considering there’s once again no physical show for E3, this can at the very least scratch of few of those itches.
I’m looking forward to Steam Next Fest. I always think it’s a great way to highlight games that may not necessarily have the budget or manpower to go all-in on marketing, and you can usually find some cool hidden gems if you look hard enough in the admittedly grossly inflated pool of demos.
Last Updated: March 25, 2021
