The Games Awards announces The Game Festival, a 48-hour free-to-play demo event 

The Game Awards has revealed The Games Festival, “a first-of-its-kind digital consumer event that brings the magic of hands-on gameplay demos to fans around the world”.

Kicking off today at 10am PT (6pm UK time), the first pilot program will go live on Valve’s digital platform Steam, offering a baker’s dozen of first-look demos. The demos will be live for just 48 hours and will include games like System Shock, Eastward, Spiritfarer, Moving Out, Röki, Chicory, Wooden Nickel and more. At 10am PT (6pm UK time) on December 14th, they’ll be removed. 

“Six years ago I bet everything I had to create The Game Awards as a way to celebrate our passion for gaming,” said Geoff Keighley, creator of The Game Awards. “Now feels like the right time to take the next step with The Game Festival, a completely digital approach to the consumer event space. 

“Let’s face it: Not everyone can attend a physical trade show or consumer event. The Game Festival is designed from the ground-up as an event without barriers, extending the benefits of a physical event to the global gaming community that watches The Game Awards.”

Here is the full list of participating games:

• System Shock (Nightdive Studios)
• Eastward (Pixpil/Chucklefish)
• Spiritfarer (Thunder Lotus)
• Moving Out (SMG Studio/Devm Games/Team17)
• Röki (Polygon Treehouse/United Label)
• Chicory (Greg Lobanov)
• Wooden Nickel (Brain&Brain)
• Haven (The Game Bakers)
• Heavenly Bodies (2pt Interactive)
• Acid Knife (Powerhoof)
• The Drifter (Powerhoof)
• CARRION (Phobia/Devolver)
• SkateBIRD (Glass Bottom Games)

The Game Awards streams live tonight at 5.30pm PT today (that’s 1.30am on Friday 13 December here in the UK) in 4K Ultra High Definition across 45+ digital stream networks, including Twitch, YouTube, Twitter and Facebook. Its advisory board includes senior representatives from Activision (Rob Kostich, President), AMD (Dr. Lisa Su, CEO), Electronic Arts (Laura Miele, Chief Studios Officer), Google (Phil Harrison, VP and GM, Stadia), Microsoft (Phil Spencer, EVP of Gaming), Nintendo of America (Doug Bowser, President), Rockstar Games, Sony Interactive Entertainment, Ubisoft (Yves Guillemot, CEO), Valve, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment (David Haddad, President) and Tencent (Steven Ma, Senior Vice President).