Arcas Games, a web3 game developer incubated by Soneium and backed by YZi Labs, together with co-developer and outsourcing studio Bevium, has officially announced the launch of a limited-time demo for their third-person PvP game Arcas Champions, now live during Steam Next Fest.

How to Play Arcas Champions Steam Demo

The demo went live on February 24th at the start of Steam’s Next Fest February 2025, and anyone interested has time until Monday, March 3rd, 10 AM PT, to try it out before Valve’s week-long event is over. Demos released as part of this event are usually only available for a limited time, and given that the developers made this build specifically for the event, it's likely that you won't be able to play this demo after the end of the event.

This release came together with a cinematic trailer on X, under which you can find a link to the game’s store page to download the demo and wishlist the action-packed ahead of its Early Access launch. The trailer can also be found on the official store page, and if that doesn’t give you a good idea of what to expect, you will also find an action-packed gameplay trailer up there as well to help you get an even better idea of what you can look forward to while playing.

Of course, don’t expect to see any web3 elements included here. This is a great way to find out if you enjoy the core gameplay of this third-person shooter though, and it’s a chance for the developers to potentially catch the eyes of millions of web2 gamers gaming on PC’s biggest gaming storefront. If you like the demo, be sure to wishlist the game to help it get more visibility on the platform.

While the game is also listed on the Epic Games Store, it doesn’t seem like there is any limited-time demo to play there. The early version of the web3 game and the full launch however will take place on both PC platforms, with the one listed on the Fortnite creator’s store supporting blockchain features.

Here are the minimum and recommended system requirements:

Minimum system requirements:

  • OS: Windows 10
  • Processor: Intel® Core™ i5-7260U 3.40 GHz
  • Memory: 8 GB RAM
  • Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti
  • DirectX: Version 12
  • Storage: 10 GB available space

Recommended system requirements:

  • OS: Windows 10
  • Processor: Intel® Core™ i7-11370H 3.30 GHz
  • Memory: 16 GB RAM
  • Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti
  • DirectX: Version 12
  • Storage: 10 GB available space

What Is Arcas Champions?

Arcas Champions is a third-person shooter set on the Ape Homeworld, where Village Elite traditionalists and renegade misfits battle for control of the planet in an effort to take control of a mysterious source of power called Bastonium. Pick from a variety of distinct Champions and use unique abilities as you explore and battle it out in this lush exotic planet across different game modes.

As you enjoy team-based guerilla warfare as one of the various different playable apes, you also get to collect more Champions with differing stats while also getting to customize them with different weapons to suit your playstyle. Fruits in this game are your weapon, so you get to blow up opponents with pineapple grenades and shoot them down with melon-powered rifles, and with bananas of course too.

The Early Access version of the game is planned to come out at some point in 2025 (possibly Q2 2025 per the roadmap) as a paid game that is set to include “all the base weapons, abilities, stats and movement” alongside an in-game progression loop. There will also be a council element, allowing players to vote on what they’d like to see added to the game next. In terms of game modes, you can look forward to Tribe Wars, which is team deathmatch; an elimination mode called Brawl, and an extraction mode referred to as Banana Fever. This early version is planned to last for a year, after which the full game is set to go live with an 8-hour campaign mode, local and online co-op survival gameplay, as well as various other polished game modes and balancing improvements.

As you play the limited-time demo of Arcas Champions, you might also want to check out the free mint for Arcas Bastonium Crystal NFTs, which is set to take place on February 28th.