The Steam Game Festival: Spring Edition kicks off Wednesday, March 18 at 10am PT / 1pm ET / 5pm GMT, bringing over 40 free demos for both new and unreleased games to the digital storefront for a limited time.
GDC's cancellation this year is at least in part responsible for the significant increase in available demos over the last Steam Game Festival, which ran alongside The Game Awards 2019 in December. "With 40+ titles featured, the Spring Edition highlights an even larger selection of games from studios who missed out on the chance to demo their games at showcases like Indie MEGABOOTH, Day of the Devs, and The MIX during this year's GDC," reads the press release.
You can access the Steam Game Festival once it goes live here, and you'll have until Monday, March 23 at 10am PT / 1pm ET / 5pm GMT to download any demos you fancy playing.
The Game Awards host and executive producer Geoff Keighley tweeted about the news Tuesday afternoon, adding that more "editions of the Festival" would be popping up year-round, and that work is being done to bring the content to platforms other than Steam.
We don't yet know any specific games that will be included in the event, but you can expect some fairly high-profile demos for new and unreleased games to be available. Last year's event brought along demos for System Shock (the Nightdive Studios remake), Moving Out, The Drifter, and a bunch of others.
The Steam Game Festival: Spring Edition is another silver lining in the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Likewise, Dutch retailer Game Mania is planning to sell copies of Animal Crossing: New Horizons early, and rumors are swirling that GameStop may do the same.
Barring any potential delays, here are the best upcoming games of 2020 and beyond.
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