CONNECT WITH US
Gaming

Gaming

This Steam Next Fest has over 7,000 games so far, almost double what we saw in June 2026

GamesRadar logo

Published on

Add as a preferred source on Google
This Steam Next Fest has over 7,000 games so far, almost double what we saw in June 2026

If you're in the mood to try new games, the Steam Next Fest is here now. There's just one catch - there are a lot of demos this year, way more than when this event happened in June, and a lot of them involve a heavy amount of AI assets.

Steam Next Fest is Valve's twice-annual digital preview event, where developers put up demos of their games in hopes you'll check them out and add a few to your wish list. Since it started in summer 2021, the number of early builds you can access has increased dramatically, from hundreds to thousands.

That's what you want, because it proves that people enjoy the concept and that it's serving its intended purpose. But AI ripoffs are now ruining the fun for everyone. There are 7,017 demos publicly listed for this Steam Next Fest, a little under twice what we saw in June, and current trends dictate a lot of them are just vibe-coded clones of existing projects.

The Needle In a Haystack debacle mere weeks ago demonstrates the issues: devs make a game centered on a particular conceit, and then numerous copycats show up, all clearly using AI-generated assets and put together extremely quickly to cash in on a trend. One developer, Alliance Arts, decided to back out of Next Fest because of fears Drunken Goddess Reflux would be copied in a similar fashion.

It feels like we're watching the dead internet theory in motion, where digital stores are just slush pits of generative AI releases copying each other ad nauseum.


Source link
Related Topics:Gaming

Disclaimer

We strive to uphold the highest ethical standards in all of our reporting and coverage. We TheMorningPulse.fyi want to be transparent with our readers about any potential conflicts of interest that may arise in our work. It's possible that some of the investors we feature may have connections to other businesses, including competitors or companies we write about. However, we want to assure our readers that this will not have any impact on the integrity or impartiality of our reporting. We are committed to delivering accurate, unbiased news and information to our audience, and we will continue to uphold our ethics and principles in all of our work. Thank you for your trust and support.