Why it matters: September is nearly over, and soon we'll be sailing into the holiday shopping season. There's arguably no better time for studios to show off what they've got in the pipe and start generating hype. Steam Next Fest should be the last games festival before catching Black Friday/Cyber Monday fever.
The Steam Game Festival might have a new name, but it will still feature plenty of games previews and demos for players to try during the week-long event. Now called Steam Next Fest, the late-year games festival offers developers the chance to show off their projects. Players also get the opportunity to interact with developers and provide them with feedback.
Next Fest runs for one week starting on October 1. Although Valve has already confirmed several projects participating in the event, it is still taking registrations from developers. Interested Studios can sign up through their Steamworks account.
All games entering the festival must have a release date between October 7, 2021, and May 1, 2022, so many of them should arrive before the holidays. A list of titles confirmed to make an appearance include:
- The Last Camp Fire (Hello Games)
- Starship Troopers: Terran Command (The Artistocrats)
- Tunic (Andrew Shouldice)
- Airhead (Octato Games)
- Unexplored 2: The Wayfarer's Legacy (Ludomotion)
- ANNO: Mutationem (Thinking Stars)
- Biwar Legend of Dragon Slayer (Devata Game Production)
- Mahokenshi (Game Source Studio)
- Decoherence (Efecto Studios)
- Inscryption (Daniel Mullins Games)
- Negative Nancy (FEED)
- Life of Delta (Airo Games)
- Itorah (Grimbart Tales)
A notable entry on the list is The Last Campfire. It is the first title from Hello Games since it launched No Man's Sky five years ago. The Last Campfire has been available since August 27 on everything from the Nintendo Switch to iOS. The 3D puzzler makes its Steam debut on October 7---the last day of Steam Next Fest.