The October edition of Steam's new demo festival, Steam Next Fest, has officially begun.

Global gaming platform Steam's pre-release demo event, Steam Next Fest, kicked off at 2 AM on October 20 in South Korea time. Over 8,200 games are participating in this edition of Steam Next Fest, and the event will run until 2 AM on October 27.

Steam Next Fest is an event where demo versions of upcoming new releases are showcased for a limited period. Game developers can introduce their titles to potential customers and gauge reactions prior to the official launch, while players get to try unreleased games in advance and add their preferred titles to their wishlists.

The number of participating titles in this Steam Next Fest exceeds 8,200. Considering that the scale recorded during the previous event in June was around 4,000 or more, the number of participating works has nearly doubled in just four months.

The core driver behind this explosive growth is pointed to as 'vibe coding', which incorporates artificial intelligence technology. Analysts suggest that as it has become easier to implement source codes and debug errors through artificial intelligence even without professional development knowledge, the overall production period has shortened while the barrier to entry into the market has also been drastically lowered.

With the surge in the number of submitted works, the choices available to gamers have broadened further. On the other hand, the exposure competition among developers trying to catch the eyes of users amidst thousands of competing titles is expected to become even more fierce.