Play over 12 free demos for unreleased games this weekend with The Game Awards

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The demos will only be available for a limited time

(Image credit: Thunder Lotus Games)

On top of big winners and hopefully big announcements - including a special one for Fortnite - The Game Awards 2019 will feature a suite of free demos for featured and unreleased games. As show producer Geoff Keighley explained in a Medium post, this year's show will air alongside The Game Festival, a new digital event which will bring over a dozen limited-time game demos exclusively to Steam.

"Now feels like the right time to take the next step with The Game Festival, a completely digital approach to the consumer event space," Keighley says. "Let’s face it: Not everyone can attend a physical trade show or consumer event. 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 Game Awards 2019 starts at 5:30pm PT / 8:30pm ET today, Thursday, December 12. The Game Festival will run from 10am PT / 1pm ET today through the same time on Saturday, December 14. At that point, all demos will be removed from Steam. 

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Here are some of the games receiving demos. These are just the games we know of so far, so expect to see more surprise demos announced at The Game Awards. 

  • System Shock (Nightdive Studios' remake)
  • Eastward
  • Spiritfarer
  • Moving Out
  • Röki 
  • Chicory
  • Wooden Nickel
  • Haven
  • Heavenly Bodies
  • Acid Knife
  • The Drifter
  • Carrion
  • SkateBird

Here are all The Game Award nominations this year. Death Stranding and Control are frontrunners for several categories, but we've also seen quiet triumphs like Katana Zero and Grindstone. 

Austin Wood
Austin Wood
Senior writer

Austin has been a game journalist for 12 years, having freelanced for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and more while finishing his journalism degree. He's been with GamesRadar+ since 2019. They've yet to realize his position is a cover for his career-spanning Destiny column, and he's kept the ruse going with a lot of news and the occasional feature, all while playing as many roguelikes as possible.