Steam Next Fest: October 2026 Edition features many demos, and players worry AI-generated content is making hidden gems even harder to find. Read on to learn more about the Steam event, community reaction, and other details here.
Steam Next Fest Features 8,000 Demos, and Players Say AI Is Burying the Original Ones
Steam Next Fest Doubles Its Demo Amount From Last Year
Steam Next Fest began on October 19th with more than 8,000 demos at launch, and that number has raised concerns for both creators and consumers. That's more than double last year's event, which had roughly 3,000 demos. Steam's official X (Twitter) announced that the event runs until October 26, though many comments have raised complaints about AI-related games.
The number of demos has sparked issues among the community about AI-generated content. Valve has required AI disclosure since 2024, but players still have no way to filter out AI-tagged games, and at least a fifth of this batch’s demos carry a generative AI disclosure, with real usage potentially even higher.
Players Say Non-AI Demos Are More Difficult to Find
Comments were filled with requests for an AI filter or a store preference to hide generative AI content, similar to the existing mature content setting. Several players said the volume made it hard to find worthwhile demos, with one user claiming about 80 percent of what they were seeing was AI-made on their Steam account.
Others described much of the lineup as “vibe-coded” or stolen and warned that real effort was being buried underneath it. A few fans said the best part of Next Fest is still discovering hidden gems, but with the amount to get through, it’s proving more challenging than expected.
Bucky Argues That Next Fest Has Always Been a Gamble
Palworld's John "Bucky" Buckley weighed in on X (Twitter), contrasting the idea that the flood of demos is the main reason games go unnoticed. In his view, a large share of Next Fest entries has always gone nearly unseen, even before generative AI.
Steam's heavy shuffling of early visibility rarely changes that once the first day passes, when attention tends to gather around a couple dozen standouts. He added that the audience has likely grown, with streamers and a wider appetite for smaller games bringing in newer players who gravitate to the biggest demos, leaving the smaller entries likely to have minimal visibility.
He acknowledged that standing out is getting harder and that "AI slop" is a real problem, but he urged developers not to pin all the blame on it. He also cited the How To Market A Game analysis, with reports showing that the number of wishlists gained in June 2024 per game was still similar to how many wishlists were earned in February 2026. According to Bucky, Next Fest remains a "gamble" that is still "worth taking".
Developers Pull Back Public Demos Over Cloning Fears
Separate from the visibility issue, some developers are limiting who gets to try their games. One example is when Alliance Arts said on October 16 that Drunken Goddess Reflux will no longer do the public demo originally slated for October 19. Instead, a limited set of closed online sessions will take its place.
The team gave two explanations: its current staff cannot realistically police or moderate all the rules on posting and streaming that it had planned for a public release, but they’re also worried the demo's contents might be used instead to "imitate or replicate the game's presentation and gameplay with AI or other tools."
Players who want in must now apply through the official Discord and accept the participation rules first. Responses were mostly sympathetic, given the ongoing issues with content being stolen or copied.
Digital Sun, the studio behind Moonlighter, took a similar step on October 19, scaling ReVamp's first playtest down to a Discord-based test and pushing the public version back. The studio pointed to recent reports of unreleased games being copied and put on sale before the originals could ship and said a wide public build felt like "too big a risk." Discord testing begins on October 29, with a public playtest hoped for around January.
Since demos are one of the main ways indie games gather traction and wishlists, the frustration of developers and the contingencies they must take to protect their projects are understandable. This trend shows how far AI's reach extends, affecting both the people looking for new games to try and the teams creating them.
Sources:
Steam Next Fest Is Back
Bucky Next Fest Discussion
Drunken Goddess Reflux Demo Change
Digital Sun ReVamp Playtest Update
Steam Next Fest Has 8,202 Demos
Steam Next Fest October 2025 Highlights
How To Market A Game: February 2026 Steam Next Fest
