The calendar for online game followers has a couple of notable highlights checkered all through the year–shows like Summer season Sport Fest and The Sport Awards, tentpole writer displays, and more and more, the common prevalence of Steam Next Fests. The Next Fest has been rising in measurement and stature for years, and now it is among the many finest methods to get a glimpse at future massive PC video games and sleeper hits alike. It’s also now, sadly, an everyday reminder that the Steam Deck’s sorting options are severely missing.
As somebody who’s naturally curious to see what’s subsequent, each personally and for this job, I am all the time excited to take a look at Next Fest. The largest draw of Next Fests are the slew of demos, numbering within the 1000’s. I haven’t got the time or the cupboard space to take a look at various dozen at most, however I am all the time wanting to browse and discover those that catch my eye. Which makes it all of the extra baffling that Steam’s signature piece of {hardware}, the Steam Deck, has no devoted Demos part.
I believe how Valve envisions this working is that customers will browse the shop and obtain demos instantly from their Steam Deck, at which level they will be added in chronological order to the house display screen hub. And that works properly sufficient, in case you’re solely attempting a handful of demos at a time.
These aren’t my habits, although. I are inclined to flick through the shop on my laptop computer, the place I can extra shortly open tabs for video games I discover attention-grabbing after which click on so as to add them to my library. So far as the Steam Deck is anxious, I could as properly be including them to Mars. They’re nowhere to be discovered on the house display screen, they usually sporadically present up in my library.
At one level I had an answer for this, having created a customized Demos folder utilizing the Decky Loader plugin. However Decky has been misbehaving these days, functionally bricking my Steam Deck till I’m going by way of an arduous technique of disabling it in secure mode, in order that’s a non-starter.
However why ought to I want a customized folder? Why would not Valve, which hosts an everyday tentpole occasion that revolves round providing 1000’s of engaging demos, merely add a piece to its extraordinarily profitable handheld {hardware} for demos? It is irritating to really feel like I am preventing my favourite system, at considered one of my favourite gaming occasions, simply to check out some upcoming video video games.
And whereas Next Fest throws this downside into essentially the most stark aid, this performance could be helpful year-round. Publishers launch demos for his or her video games on a regular basis, and it’s typically tough to type and discover them on the Steam Deck. Having a single devoted part to seek out the entire video games I need to pattern would make the expertise a lot cleaner and extra fulfilling.
Steam Next Fest is upon us, and with no phrase of an replace to the Deck UI, I can solely assume this downside will not be addressed in time for this one. There’s all the time hope for the subsequent Next Fest, although. Till then, considered one of my favourite occasions on the gaming calendar comes with a small however persistently annoying caveat.