Steam Next Fest is a week-long celebration featuring hundreds of FREE playable demos as well as developer livestreams and chats. Players try out upcoming games on Steam pre-release, developers gather feedback and build an audience ahead of their Steam launch, everyone wins!
They…aren’t? They’re free demos, right there in the title.
I think he’s trying to say that the phrase “free demos” implies the existence of demos you have to pay for.
They do - it’s called “early access”
That’s just a release though, only they’re being honest about how unfinished and buggy their game is.
Kind of like the Pizza Hut demo discs for PS1?