The Game Awards starts tomorrow and along with the awards ceremony and world premiere trailers, organizer and host Geoff Keighley is using the platform to spearhead a “first-of-its-kind” event that will allow Steam users to play demos of upcoming games. But only for 48 hours.
The Game Festival, as it’s called, will begin tomorrow, December 12 at 10 a.m. Pacific, and conclude on Saturday, December 14 at the same time. Keighley said the idea was to emulate a trade show like E3 or PAX, in order to give people who can’t make it to an event like those a chance to play games before they’re out, while also giving the demos themselves that same sense of limited-time exclusivity.
“Let’s face it: Not everyone can attend a physical trade show or consumer event,” Keighley, said in a press release. “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.”
The list of games featured during The Game Festival are as follows:
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 themselves will air tomorrow, December 12, at 5:30 p.m. Pacific on streaming platforms like Twitch and YouTube. Even if you don’t care about the outcome of the awards, each year the Game Awards bring major announcements from several companies. Last year, there were big reveals like the first teaser for the next Dragon Age game, the inclusion of Persona 5’s Joker as a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, as well as new trailers for already announced games like Psychonauts 2 and The Outer Worlds.
This year Keighley and co. already have confirmed a few announcements and premieres that will come during this year’s show, including a new trailer from Sucker Punch of its PlayStation 4 exclusive Ghost of Tsushima, which was announced during yesterday’s State of Play stream, as well as updates on ongoing games like Fortnite.
