Steam renames its Game Festival to Steam Next Fest, schedules it for June

Steam has scheduled its newly-renamed Next Fest for June, around the same time as E3.

What you need to know

• Steam has a regular game festival, in which users can play game demos and watch trailers as well as developer livestreams
• This year, it's been rebranded as Steam Next Fest.
• It'll run from June 16-22, very close to when E3 2021 was last reported to be scheduled.

Steam has officially renamed its game festival, which will now be called Steam Next Fest. The new name, according to Valve, reflects the show's focus on upcoming games. The new Next Fest will be held on June 16-22, and you can set a reminder for the event on the Steam Next Fest page.

Valve has also confirmed that, just as with the previous Game Festivals, Next Fest will have "hundreds of game demos." If you want to know what you can use to play those demos, take a look at our list of the best PC gaming controllers. Steam didn't give any hints on which games and/or demos would be shown at the event, but it did post a sizzle reel from the February Games Festival to give players an idea.

Steam also promised that gamers would be able to watch developer livestreams and chat directly with them about their games. In the meantime, if you can't wait to get your hands on the free demos that Steam has promised you can try your hand at one of the many free Steam games currently available.

June 16-22 is in line with other summer games shows, like E3. Curiously, leaked dates suggested E3 2021 was going to run as a digital event from June 15-17 (the in-person event has been presumed to be canceled, given current events), but at the time of this writing, that has not been officially confirmed by the ESA. If both events do run, it'd be a wealth of information on new games, and if E3 doesn't happen this year in the traditional sense, at least we'll have Next Fest to watch.