More than 35 “show floor”-style game demos will be playable from December 7–21
Not to pile more games on your already full plate, but you might want to set aside some time in December for a bunch of limited-time demos. Starting Tuesday, December 7, the [email protected] Winter Game Fest event will offer up 35+ demos for upcoming Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S games. You can also expect to see some limited-time PC demos, too.
For instance, Nobody Saves the World, the next title from Guacamelee studio Drinkbox, will get a demo on Xbox and Steam. It’s the one I’m most interested in personally, and the demo will even have online co-op with access to “the opening hours of the game,” which sounds great. It’s an action-RPG with wild-looking forms and mix-and-match abilities.
The full [email protected] Winter Game Fest demo list isn’t out yet (we’ll update this article once it is), but here’s a preview of several featured games courtesy of the event organizers:
- Death Trash — a fleshy post-apocalyptic RPG full of punks and unspeakable horrors.
- Loot River — a fantasy action roguelike title with a Tetris-style twist.
- The Tale of Bistun — an action-adventure game about a stone carver inspired by the Persian poem “Khosrow and Shirin.”
- Blacktail — an archery game with Baba Yaga’s origin story.
- Nobody Saves the World — a Zelda-esque RPG with wacky body transformations.
More of the participating demos have popped up on the Xbox store, if you’re curious.
“Many of these demos are early, and some are for games that won’t be out for quite some time,” according to Xbox’s Jessica Ronnell, the [email protected] event and community management lead. “Think of these as akin to “show floor demos,” and not necessarily indicative of the final product. What that means is that you’ll get to experience these games early — some way early — which is awesome, but you should also note that these games will continue to evolve and be polished as they near release.”
Again, these demos are time-limited — they’ll “evaporate after December 21” — so this is our chance in a lot of cases. That said, some might return at a later date.