Demos were once a cornerstone of PC gaming, and thanks to events like Steam Next Fest, they're arguably becoming that again. Steam's latest update aims to make it easier for players to find, and developers to promote, these free slices of potential enjoyment.
The update, which is being called the Big Steam Demo Update in the announcement, brings a few changes. Demos will now behave differently in your library: you can add them without installing them right away; you can now install them even if you own the full game; and they can be manually removed from your library or will be automatically removed when removed.
Additionally, demos can now have their own separate store pages if the developer so chooses. This allows the developer to further explain the demo's content, add unique screenshots and trailers, and even allow players to write user reviews about the demo.
Additionally, all demos will now appear in more places on the Steam store and act more like free standalone games.
When I started my career twenty years ago, my job was to create cover discs (both CD and DVD) full of demos that would be stuck in the front of a PC gaming magazine, and write about the demos' content inside the magazine's pages. I've had the opportunity to watch up close as the file sizes of these demos have grown, becoming harder to fit on a DVD, and their creation has become less and less common. It's a shame.
I think there's still a debate about whether demos help developers sell their games – and I think the answer varies greatly depending on the game, the demo, and whether they're both good or not. As a gamer, I'm not really invested in that debate. To me, demos are unquestionably good: free, hypothetically fun, and a great way to avoid spending money on games I might not like. It's great that they've had such a big resurgence, and that we can now write about them at events like Wishlisted.