All articles tagged with #steam
Resident Evil Requiem launched on Steam and immediately set a new all-time peak for concurrent players, surpassing the previous record and signaling strong demand for the title as it climbs Steam’s charts.
Marathon's Server Slam drew a peak of 143,621 concurrent players on Steam in its first 24 hours, with the free beta also available on PlayStation and Xbox, signaling strong early momentum ahead of its March 5 launch and positioning against fellow extraction shooters like Arc Raiders.
RedOctane Games announced Stage Tour, a rhythm-action title that blends familiar note-highway gameplay with modern twists. The game features Gibson guitar and bass designs, a Build Your Band system, and support for up to four players. It’s planned to launch for consoles and PC via Steam this fall, with additional platform details to be announced later, along with a roadmap of seasonal content and live events.
New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a lawsuit against Valve, arguing its randomized loot boxes in games like Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2, and Team Fortress 2 amount to unregulated gambling, since players can resell valuable virtual items via the Steam Marketplace or third‑party sites; the suit also targets Valve’s cash‑out practices and seeks restitution, penalties, and changes to the loot‑box system.
Square Enix’s Steam release of the original Final Fantasy VII has drawn mostly negative reviews from veterans, who point to speed-related desync between actions and audio after a patch, poor background upscaling, crashes on launch, and the removal of the 2013 version. While QoL tweaks like a 3x speed option exist, many players see flawed QA and preservation concerns as the larger issue, though some still hope for future fixes.
Kotaku reports that Final Fantasy VII’s latest Steam re-release dropped Feb 24 and already has an overwhelmingly negative reception, with only 36% of 308 reviews positive. Critics cite a forced launcher, stuttering sound, broken resolution options, blurry visuals, and missing features from the delisted 2013 Edition; some patches have fixed issues like doubling the FPS to 30, though that sped up animations, and further patches are anticipated as updates continue.
Steam’s February 2026 Next Fest runs Feb 23–Mar 2 and offers 30 highlighted, free demos to download now (with hundreds more in the showcase), giving players an early look at a range of titles from strategy and horror to roguelikes and shooters, ahead of upcoming sales like the Steam Spring Sale.
As Slay the Spire 2 locks in a March 5 release, indie developers respond by adjusting their own launch plans—some delaying their games, others moving up to dodge the hype and crowded window—creating a busy early-March landscape on Steam.
Kotaku’s The Sicko’s Guide to Steam Next Fest February 2026 spotlights a curated batch of indie demos (including Corn Kidz 64, Downsouth, RUBATO, Blast Cats, PSI, Subjectivation, ChainStaff, Bad Pixels, and ᴛᴜᴍᴏʀ ɴᴇᴄʀᴏꜱɪꜱ ꜰᴀᴄᴛᴏʀ:// αᴍᴇɴ) and discusses how Steam’s discoverability can obscure hidden gems. The piece advises creators and players to bolster discovery by following developers, checking itch.io, adding demos to the wishlist, and exploring Backlogged pages to tailor Next Fest to personal tastes.
Engadget’s indie-gaming roundup surveys Steam Next Fest demos and a raft of upcoming titles, from the Zelda-inspired Gecko Gods (Switch/PS5/PC on Apr 16) to Denshattack!’s train‑trick chaos and Wax Heads (May 5). It highlights showcases like Convergence and Indie Fan Fest, queues up releases such as Raccoin (Mar 31), GridBeat (Mar 26), InKonbini: One Store. Many titles arrive across Switch, PS5, Xbox and PC, with previews like Surfpunk, Croak, Skate Bums, Love Eternal, Titanium Court and Become, plus an Adventure Game Aptitude Test from Woe Industries—plus plenty of Next Fest demos to try.
Battlefield 6’s Season 2 update did not revive interest or player counts, with Steam numbers hovering around 97k at best (up from 92k at launch) and Twitch viewership peaking near 27k in 24 hours, well short of the October 2025 launch peak of 747k and far below competing titles like ARC Raiders, indicating a continued decline rather than resurgence.
Indie roguelike Mewgenics by Edmund McMillen and Tyler Glaiel has set Steam’s roguelike records, reaching a peak of about 115k concurrent players and quickly recouping its development budget in three hours, though it trails Hades and Hades 2 on other metrics like Metacritic scores and review percentages; the game is priced at $26.99 / £22.49.
Mewgenics, the cat-breeding roguelike from the creators of The Binding of Isaac, set a Steam record by reaching 115,428 concurrent players over the weekend, the highest ever for a roguelike on Steam and surpassing Hades 2’s 112,947 peak. The game previously sold 150,000 copies in six hours and around 500,000 in 36 hours; a DLC and a console version are planned for the future.
Steam is under fire for failing to police harassment and hate speech in user reviews, including antisemitic attacks on creators and politicized criticism that harms developers. Critics say Valve lacks effective tools to verify reviews and protect the community, risking waning trust and less diversity in games if action isn’t taken.
Magical Princess, a parenting-simulation game from MAGI Inc. and Neotro, will launch on PC via Steam this spring, letting you raise a daughter from childhood to graduation with over 200 date scenes and 50 endings, in English, Japanese, and Simplified Chinese; the November 2025 demo has 30,000 downloads with about 97% positive reviews.