What's the deal with major games not having demos anymore?

Jed Shields

Jed Shields

Jed Shields

Associate
Joined
23 Apr 2007
Posts
1,785
Location
Cardiff-ish, Wales
Seeing as my Dragon Age 2 Demo thread got (needlessly) closed, I'm branching the question out a bit. How do you feel about the news that Dragon Age 2 is getting a demo? I for one am quite impressed as it seems that the majority of high profile cross platform don't get a demo. There's usually some lame excuse such as not enough development time, hectic schedule, we wanted to focus on polishing the finished product etc. The downside is obviously forking out on a (potentially) polished turd.

I'm also disappointed that I feel impressed that DA2 is getting a demo. Why should I give them credit for something that should be the norm?

I wonder how many other major games due to be released this year will get a demo? The Witcher 2? DNF? Diablo 3? - oh wait, I said this year ... Deus Ex 3? I seriously doubt this one as we're struggling to find any PC screenshots and gameplay video...

I believe the industries move towards sweetener pre-order deals seems to have reignited the games initial sales as people don't want to lose out on the goodies. However, how many times have you been burned with a crappy game on release day? How many have been pleasantly surprised?
 
Your DA thread got closed because the DA official thread already had several mentions of a demo which you'd of known had you looked for it.

They don't give demo's because it would a) cut into there precious 'little' profits and b) people might realise just how **** the game actually is and not buy it.
 
Evilsod said:
Your DA thread got closed because the DA official thread already had several mentions of a demo which you'd of known had you looked for it.
Click to expand...

I'd already opened the thread out to more generic content, such as this thread, before it was locked. A simple reply asking me to change the thread title (if possible) would have sufficed ...

Anyway, back on topic - DNF demo - great!

RPG demo - absolutely, you can still check out the mechanics, graphics etc without the need for long intricate plot build up. The original DA character build demo at least gave us an idea of the mechanics behind the game. It would have been even better if they knocked up a sandbox encounter with a first level character of your own to get a feel for the combat etc.
 
I think a demo should be released at some point, but YouTube videos explaining a game like MMOHut does and other gamers is decent enough to give me a generally good idea of whether i should buy the game or not.
 
Tefal said:
because demo's detract from advertising hype and can only harm sales on a major game.
Click to expand...

Really? There's a whole load of game demo's I've tried that led me to buy that I wouldn't have even considered. Best recent example for me was Batman. I really wasn't interested in it, hadn't heard much about it and thought it would be some poorly ported console rubbish. I played the demo and was hooked, possibly my favourite game of 2009 / 2010.

If a demo is marketed correctly, surely it can only add to the hype ... assuming the game doesn't suck of course :)
 
Some single player games are so short these day's that if they brought out a demo you'd already have played half the entire game by the end of the demo. Alternatively the demo would be so short it would be pointless putting in the effort to bring one out at all.
 
They don't have PC demo's because:


i - They're generally poor games/ports and they NEED you to buy them. They'd rather you didn't know how **** their product is before you've parted with your cash.

ii - It takes time and money to sort out demo code and distribution which they're unwilling to spend. See (i).

iii - Consoles are more important to most devs at this point in time. See (i).

iv - A bad review or bad word of mouth about a demo that arrives before the final game can be devastating to sales and render marketing spends redundant. See (i).

v - Demo's make marketing hype pointless. Marketing is big business these days. See (i) & (iv).


In most cases you can assume if there's no demo then the game is terrible. Doing this will serve you well and save you money.
 
Last edited:
Look at how many of the 'top' games were actually good. It's all personal opinion at the end of the day.
Some people like to play Black Ops, Halo, Rockband and some people find those games utterly tedious.

I do tend to rely on a good demo to sway my purchase; but I'm a stingy old man who is immune to the hype machine.
 
Shamikebab said:
Occasionally when I know a game is going to be good.

Look at the top games of the last few years and tell me how many had demos.
Click to expand...

Point of a demo is supposed to be to encourage people to buy your game if they're on the fence. You want people to preorder it or buy it on release, not buy it a few months down the line when its going cheap because they didn't think it was worth the risk.

If devs treat them as something that could lose them money then clearly the product isn't actually that good and they know it which makes it even less likely to part with your money early.

On the topic of DA2 though. I already think the game looks like its gonna be crap thanks to the new combat system looking more like a hack n slash than an RPG, i'll just try the demo to see if i'm right or not.
 
most games now days are classed as beta testing for example test drive 2, Medal of honour, as other people has said, if they released a demo for example COD, you would be playing 50% of the game.

Originally we didn't have this problem, i remember seeing the demo for doom 2, because of the vast amounts of levels, however as technology has developed to have bigger games, this in affect will take a lot more considerable time to complete. As we all are aware that Doom 4 will be released sometime fall of this year, i haven't seen no screenshots/ trailers now't! i beleive this will be one of the biggest games of 2011.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom