Steam Game Festival Kicks Off With Hundreds Of Game Demos To Play

As promised, the first Steam Game Festival for 2021 kicked off mere moments ago. Like the Steam Game Festivals that came before it, this one will be centered around upcoming projects from a large number of developers. The main draw for most Steam users will be the demos that are on offer over the next six days, and in fact, it looks like there will once again be too many demos to play over such a short timespan.

Valve says that there will be more than 500 game demos on offer during this event, which runs until February 9th at 10 AM PST. That gives Steam users six days on the nose to play through any demos that catch their eye, which isn't much time at all.

Thankfully, Steam will be putting wishlists and recommendations to use in helping users narrow down the pool of demos, surfacing demos from games that are on users' wishlists or demos that Steam thinks users might like to see based on their playing history. Users can also browse demos by genres, sub-genres, themes, features, visuals & viewpoints, and players, so even though there's a huge number of demos to check out, Steam users have some tools at their disposal when it comes to finding demos they want to play.

The Steam Game Festival doesn't just comprise demos, though. There will also be livestreams and events hosted by the developers of these games. Some of the livestreams will simply consist of developers showcasing their games, while others will even feature Q&A sessions. You can browse the list of upcoming events (and peruse the demos that are available) over on the Steam Game Festival page.

So, there you have it: the Steam Game Festival is back and you've got six days to work your way through as many PC game demos as you can stomach. This is likely the beginning of a packed February for Steam, as the Lunar New Year sale is expected to kick off next week, just a few days after the Game Festival ends. We'll have more details on that Lunar New Year sale for you when Valve shares them, so stay tuned.