Steam Next Fest 2023: You have seven days to play 900 game demos

Steam Next Fest 2023 has officially launched, giving gamers the opportunity to play roughly 900 demos over the next seven days.

The week-long celebration allows players try out upcoming games on Steam pre-release, with developers gathering feedback and growing their audience ahead of launch.

With up to 900 game demos available over the week (ending on February 13), players would have to work through 129 demos a day in order to see them all.

That works out at 5.5 demos per hour, giving you a total of 12 minutes to dedicate to each one.

However, if you wish to be more specific with your choices, the Steam Next Fest page includes a “recommended for you” section, which is tailored to your interests.

You can find the full list of available demos at store.steampowered.com. Simply hover over the one you wish to play and you’ll be given the option to install it.

Players can also watch livestreams of the demos, which are usually played by the developers as they answer questions from viewers. You can click on the chat icon below the stream to open up a separate window and start a conversation.

Additionally, players have the option to add games to their wishlist, so they can be notified of a title’s release via email.

The February 2023 Steam Next Fest is live now and runs until February 13.

In other gaming news, the latest update for Overwatch 2 has made it more difficult to play as Mercy within the game.

Today (February 7) saw the launch of the first-person shooter sequel’s third season, which introduced various changes to the Mercy hero.

Blizzard states in the patch notes that the changes will “empower Mercy even more as a triage healer and enable her to more often save low health allies”. However, none of the nerfs directly target the character’s ability to damage boost allies.

The updates encourage Mercy to stay in orbit of her team rather than teaming up with a single DPS hero. The tweaks double down on healing as her primary role, and it’ll be important for keeping yourself alive.