Marketing agency Palaye (formerly GTP Media) has announced the fourth Ukrainian Games Festival on Steam. This time, teams that have not stopped selling their games in the Russian Federation will not be allowed to participate.
Marketing agency Palaye (formerly GTP Media) has announced the fourth Ukrainian Games Festival on Steam. This time, teams that have not stopped selling their games in the Russian Federation will not be allowed to participate.
The Ukrainian Games Festival 2025, which will take place from August 14 to 21, will feature hundreds of Ukrainian projects, including hits from well-known studios GSC Game World, 4A Games, and Frogwares, as well as new releases and projects from independent games from all over Ukraine, the press release states. During the week, players will be able to purchase Ukrainian games at discounts, try demos, and see exclusive announcements from participants.
More than 200 developers have already received invitations. For developers who have not yet received a personal invitation, the organizers have opened a registration form. Participation in the festival remains completely free, the organizers emphasize. They reported that since 2022, the festival pages on Steam have received more than 7.6 million views.
«This year’s update: we are not accepting teams that continue to sell games in Russia. Participants have been given time to resolve this issue. Our team’s position here is simple — interacting with the Russian market is harmful to both security and the heart, and this should have been understood by now,» Palaye said.
Ukrainian Games Festival combines a sale, an exhibition of demos, premieres of new games, and announcements from Ukrainian developers. For two years in a row, the festival has received official support from Valve — the event banner appears on the Steam homepage, guaranteeing the participants' projects visibility to millions of players.
Last year, Ukrainian gamers were outraged by the appearance on Steam of the Games from Russia 2024 festival, organized by the Blackbalance Games studio. The American company Valve, which owns the Steam service, was accused of tolerance for Russian products, and even of supporting the genocide of the Ukrainian people committed by the Russian Federation.
dev.ua spoke with Stepan Prokhorenko, co-organizer of the Ukrainian Steam Games Festival, about how such events are held on the largest gaming platform on PC.
Last year, ten new Ukrainian games were presented for the first time at the Ukrainian Games Festival. Among them are Soul Shuffler, Comix Zero, BEYODER, Whispers of the Void, Armageddonica, Boxville 2, Angelo & Deemon 2, Bloody Cleanup, PockeDate! and Trickster Trove.
The Ukrainian Video Game Festival is part of a broader Ukrainian Games initiative to support Ukrainian developers. The project includes a weekly newsletter, the Indie Cup Ukraine, and regular charity fundraisers.
In addition to the Steam activities, the Palaye team is preparing additional events to support Ukrainian developers and military personnel. Details will be announced closer to the event.
