Steam Games Festival “Summer Edition” Announced

It seems Geoff Keighley, the longtime host of The Game Awards, has joined forces with Valve to fill the hole in the games industry left by the cancellation of E3 2020 that was announced last month. You might recall that a “Spring edition” of Steam’s Game Festival took place in March, wherein numerous developers offered players either demos of their games or time-limited playable experiences that weren’t classified as demos. I certainly remember that, as I discovered several new games thanks to that festival that have since been added to my Steam wishlist.

I’ve just been made aware that this tradition will continue for the time being. You see, it’s been announced that there will be a “Summer edition” of that same festival taking place in just under two months’ time. This version of the Steam Games festival will begin on June 9th, 2020, and run through June 14th. Something tells me the scheduling of this incarnation of the Games Festival is no coincidence. It is, after all, slated to commence on what would have been the first day of this year’s E3.

Fellow gaming news outlet VG 24/7 reports that Geoff Keighley has posted a few Tweets which have led to speculation that this edition of the Steam Games Festival might be a bit larger in scale than past versions. To quote the Tweets in question directly, Keighley stated that “[m]uch more news will be coming soon about [his] plans for the summer,” going on to add that these plans include “an entirely new way for us all to gather and celebrate gaming in these uncertain times.”

Personally, I’m all for another installment of the Game Festival, especially one right at the start of summer. If it plays even a small role in getting all our collective minds off the fact that our local, state, and perhaps even national governments have essentially told the vast majority of us to become shut-ins until further notice, I think this festival will help massively. I do find myself compelled to wonder whether the kicking off of the Summer Games Festival will also coincide with the commencement of the Steam Summer Sale, which, as many of you know, is Steam’s biggest sale of any given year.

That last bit is entirely speculation on my part, however. I think it would be wonderful to have both a plethora of new game demos, indie or otherwise, alongside a massive sale on virtually any game you can think of that calls the Steam store home, but I can easily see how that might not be feasible. At any rate, if you want to set a reminder for yourself as soon as the Games Festival kicks off so that you can jump right into the festivities, you can always do so here.