Demo's

savagesam117 · 23 Mar 2015 at 20:52

Why is there barely any demos for PC games? I remember on Xbox you used to get loads of them. There's so many games i want to try without buying the full game. I know there's that naughty thing you can do on the internet but still..

PhysicsMan94 · 23 Mar 2015 at 21:16

The age of demos is over, it's now all about releasing overpriced "early-access" titles which barely work so that game development studios can get paid for others testing their games.

Raumarik · 23 Mar 2015 at 21:23

Early access is indeed to blame for this, there are a surprising number on steam though, just generally not for the games I want to check out..

Squark · 23 Mar 2015 at 21:25

Publishers don't make money from demos.
They'd rather that you paid £50 for the privilege of finding out that the game is pap.

Aedus · 23 Mar 2015 at 21:29

With early access we pay companies to play demo versions of the game.

Why would they give them out for free?! Ludicrous.

savagesam117 · 23 Mar 2015 at 21:35

I know but i don't want to play a game that's not finished? I refuse to pay for anything thats in early access. I'll pay full price if i like the game.

RageQuit© · 23 Mar 2015 at 22:08

Those were the days!

almoststew1990 · 23 Mar 2015 at 22:44

That demo disk looks awesome!

savagesam117 · 23 Mar 2015 at 22:50

RageQuit© said:
Those were the days!

I remember getting the Original Xbox magazine with the demo disks. If only it was like that now!

I hate how everything has gone so digital

MatsyLR · 23 Mar 2015 at 23:08

So you buy crap unoptimsed games.

Sega Mega Dave · 23 Mar 2015 at 23:20

No idea what a demo is, is it a peripheral?

Also those weren't the days, hunting for patches was a ball ache. That said demos should be compulsory.

macmodder · 24 Mar 2015 at 09:22

Demo discs rocked – I remember playing demos off PC Gamer mags of pretty much all my favourite games of my childhood – worms, Unreal Tournament, Theme Hospital, Deus Ex etc.

Early access isn't perfect, but I still went for it on Kerbal Space Program, and I don't regret it in the slightest. That said, I did play their demo beforehand!

Mynight · 24 Mar 2015 at 09:23

I miss demo disks

. The only demos I get these days come from magnet links

.

WiZZyWiGG · 24 Mar 2015 at 10:47

Demos are also something I miss, which is one of the reasons I try and push indie devs we publish at work to also do a demo.

yet72 · 24 Mar 2015 at 12:56

Free to play games are like demos in a way. You get to try part of the game and pay for more if you like it.

savagesam117 · 24 Mar 2015 at 15:48

yet72 said:
Free to play games are like demos in a way. You get to try part of the game and pay for more if you like it.

Yeah but all the free to play games on steam are **** and none of the big companies do free to play of decent games, they'd make no money!

theMilitant · 24 Mar 2015 at 21:01

Getting a demo disk with the official Playstation magazine used to be the highlight of my month when I was a kid. I do wish more PC games would release demos, but I can't even remember the last time a demo for a top tier game was released on PC.

Vinno · 24 Mar 2015 at 21:59

theMilitant said:
Getting a demo disk with the official Playstation magazine used to be the highlight of my month when I was a kid. I do wish more PC games would release demos, but I can't even remember the last time a demo for a top tier game was released on PC.

It's pretty sad isn't it. I too used to love the demo disks coming with the magazines. I can understand why they don't do demos anymore but I still wish that they would. If I could try a game before buying it I'd probably buy more games whilst they're still at full price. As things stand at the moment I usually wait until they are vastly cheaper just in case it turns out to be crap!

stopper · 24 Mar 2015 at 23:12

theMilitant said:
Getting a demo disk with the official Playstation magazine used to be the highlight of my month when I was a kid.

Ha, in my day it was a floppy disc for the Amiga and ST

Malevolence · 24 Mar 2015 at 23:26

Back in the day it used to be a tape on the front of the magazine. That said though, there was nothing worse back then than typing in pages of machine code from Your Sinclair or Crash only for one of two things to happen, a.) when you try to run it you realise that you've made a single typo somewhere in the thousands of lines or b.) you dare to breath anywhere near the Spectrum and it crashes.