Steam’s next big Games Festival will start on March 18th with a special spring edition designed to showcase more than 40 games that were originally set to appear at the now-cancelled GDC (Game Developers Conference) 2020. GDC is traditionally a popular place for developers – especially lesser-known indie devs – to show off their upcoming games and the innovative designs they have been working on.
In the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, however, GDC 2020 never happened, and the organization's current plans hope to revive the conference sometime in the late summer, depending on circumstances. This was just one of the many worldwide game events to see cancellation or delay due to the COVID-19 coronavirus, including E3 and multiple Esport tournaments. While a GDC Relief Fund has been set up to help support the indie developers planning to appear at GDC, the loss of the event still equaled a massive loss of exposure for these studios.
Now, Steam is trying to change that. A Twitter post from Geoff Keighley, producer and creator of The Game Awards and Gamescom, announced that the Games Festival would be returning to Steam on March 18th, 2020, specifically to highlight the games unseen due to coronavirus, which currently remains without an official vaccine despite ridiculous GameStop rumors to the contrary. The first Games Festival was held back in December 2019 and featured only 14 upcoming game demos, which were made available for users to download and play for 48 hours so that Steam players could get a taste of what was coming and put the games they liked on their wishlists. The spring version of the festival aims much higher, with more than 40 games available, all of which were originally due to be shown back in February.
For now, the exact games being released for the spring festival are still under wraps, and will be revealed when the event begins on March 18th. Interested players will be able to log in to the main Steam store page to find all the details. Also unlike the December version is the cutoff date: This festival will last through March 23rd, making it a safe assumption that players will be able to experience the game demos for five full days this time around. It’s also not the only deal that Steam is offering for the latter half of March.
The spring festival comes at a particularly key time for these smaller developers that missed their chance at GDC, and likely other chances this year. With so many locations restricting group size, shutting down bars or restaurants, and changing school policies, there’s more time for Steam fans to experiment with new games than ever. Plus, the indie developers get a far larger test audience than they would have at GDC, so the streaming experience may be more useful for them as well. Steam’s game festivals could have just become a permanent feature for the platform – and a way into the future of indie game marketing. With 40-plus games there’s sure to be something for everyone to try, so the only question remaining is how many players will find something worth their time.
Source: Geoff Keighley/Twitter
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