The Steam Game Festival: Spring Edition is live, with free demos for more than 40 games

(Image credit: Valve)

Update: the Steam Game Festival: Spring Edition is now live, with more than 40 demos originally planned for GDC's Indie Megabooth, Day of the Devs, and more. We'll be taking a bunch of them for a spin and will have some thoughts to share about our favorites soon—in the meantime, you can jump in yourself on Steam.

(Image credit: Valve)

Original story:

The cancellation of GDC was a big blow for indie game developers, who rely on events like the Indie Megabooth and Day of the Devs to showcase their new stuff. To help counter that loss, Geoff Keighley and Steam are putting together the Steam Game Festival: Spring Edition, which will put a spotlight on new and upcoming games that missed out on their big chance to shine.

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The first-ever Game Festival on Steam took place in December 2019 in conjunction with The Game Awards, and gave users time-limited "first-looking game demos" for more than a dozen games. The Spring Edition will be a significantly larger affair, with more than 40 games featured.

It will be longer, too: Demos from the first festival were good for only 48 hours, but the Steam Game Festival Spring Edition kicks off at 10 am PT/1 pm ET on March 18, and will run until the same time on March 23. Look for it when it goes live at store.steampowered.com.

Andy Chalk

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.