Next Steam Next Fest drops 'hundreds' more demos this October

The first Steam Next Fest happened this June and among the 700-odd (!) demos available, there were more than a few gems to discover. Valve announced shortly afterward that it would host another next month, running from October 1-7, and now the event has a trailer showing off some of the games being featured.

Steam Next Fest is, as the name suggests, all about what's coming down the line: the idea is that a whole bunch of demos for all sorts of games land at the same time, and then you can fill your boots for the duration. Or if you're sensible, wait a few days until we've sifted through 'em all and can tell you what to look out for.

The event doesn't have a schedule yet but will feature developer livestreams and interviews about games in progress. There's no firm number of games yet beyond "hundreds", though expect more than you can reasonably play in a week. That's not to be down on Next Fest though: for as long as Steam has been Steam smaller developers have had issues getting their games surfaced in front of people, and regular events like this must help with visibility.

Valve will begin the event on October 1 with its own livestream, at which it will no doubt announce Half-Life 3, and you can set a Steam reminder for the event here.

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Rich is a games journalist with 15 years' experience, beginning his career on Edge magazine before working for a wide range of outlets, including Ars Technica, Eurogamer, GamesRadar+, Gamespot, the Guardian, IGN, the New Statesman, Polygon, and Vice. He was the editor of Kotaku UK, the UK arm of Kotaku, for three years before joining PC Gamer. He is the author of a Brief History of Video Games, a full history of the medium, which the Midwest Book Review described as "[a] must-read for serious minded game historians and curious video game connoisseurs alike."