Steam soft-launches free game demos

Steam has added a new feature which allows players to play a timed demo of certain titles.

As reported by PC Gamer, previously players could purchase a game, play it and get a full refund if they returned it within Steam’s two-hour window.

This new system simply allows players to click a ‘play now’ button via the game’s store page to access a timed demo, playable in their Steam client.

The feature is currently only available for the Dead Space remake, with a message on the store page reading “The Dead Space timed trial is now available. Play for free for up to 1 hour 30 minutes.”

“That’s perfect for Steam Deck users that want to see how a game will perform before making the plunge,” wrote one user with another adding “Speedrunners having a field day with this.”

New category: Steam trials speed runs

— Dare (@expdare) May 15, 2023

Steam has yet to confirm future plans for the feature.

EA Motive’s remake of Dead Space was launched in January, with a hotfix following a week later which allowed the title to work on Steam Deck and earned it a “verified” rating from Valve.

In a four-star review, NME wrote:  “EA Motive’s remake of Dead Space does most of what you’d hope for, massively improving the game’s visual quality and improving certain mechanics like zero-g, while retaining the frantic combat and lightning-paced story of the original. Your mileage may vary on the changes to the story, but it feels for the most part like the Dead Space you remember.”

Following the release of the game, fans believe that Motive is looking to remake Dead Space 2 and 3 after translating an “indecipherable” log in the new, New Game+ mode.

However, composer Trevor Gureckis believes it would make “a whole lot of sense” for EA Motive to start looking at a brand new Dead Space 4 game instead.

In other news, Overwatch 2’s long-awaited co-op player vs enemy (PvE) game mode has been scrapped by Blizzard.