In his quest to make The Game Awards more engaging, industry veteran Geoff Keighley has introduced a new initiative to garner activity from gamers. Called "The Game Festival," this 48-hour digital event will run concurrently with Thursday's live event and let viewers play some of the games feature on the show floor. It's a way of lessening the wait people will have between seeing a cool new trailer and actually getting their hands on said game.

As Keighley writes on Twitter, "As our show continues to grow, I want to move beyond just showing trailers -- and give you access to gameplay through a digital consumer event. This is a pilot program for 2019. We'll take your feedback and expand in a big way in 2020 across all platforms and regions."

This first annual event will be held exclusively on Steam. Starting at 10 am PST on December 12, players will have access to 13 demos (and possibly more) to try at their leisure. The full list can be found over on Keighley's Medium page, though the two standouts are System Shock and SkateBIRD.

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To incentivize players engaging with this event, Keighley will be streaming The Game Awards directly to Steam at 4K resolution. Viewers tuning in from Valve's client will also have a chance to win a Valve Index VR headset -which will go great with Half-Life: Alyx next year-. Not only that, but a Game Awards focused sale will be running for 48-hours to let users save on some of 2019's biggest games.

While this is clearly a marketing gimmick, it's something I've always wanted to happen during these events. E3, Gamescom, TGS, and even The Game Awards have traditionally felt exclusionary for their reluctance to let average folks in. It is certainly possible to buy expensive tickets to attend these events, but there's no real point if you can't actually play any of the games?

As the internet continues to grow in strength, why not let users simply download the demos being presented? It's great to see Keighley taking advantage of our modern era to give something back to the people at home.

Source: Twitter

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