When/why did pre release demos become a rarity and not the "norm"?

Gimpymoo

Gimpymoo

Gimpymoo

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Back in the day, a dev would assign a group to "demo duty" part way through development with the Demo being a very important marketing tool.

Is the decline partly owing to the internet giving all the coverage/hype a game needs nowadays without the need for a demo on a magazine cover cd (or, if Your Sinclair, a tape ;) )

As consumers, should we expect a demo for a new releases or are we demanding too much?
 
I find this very annoying, some games i won't buy due to there not being a demo surely there are losing sales?
 
Demo's do still exist. They are called betas. They make you feel exclusive and special. They also come with the caveat that it's an unfinished build, so gamers can believe the game will magically transform into everything they ever desired on release.
 
There's a shift in focus to making the demo a 'beta' release, and giving it to customers who pre-order the game early. Not something I'm a fan of really.

Edit: Beaten
 
gord said:
Demo's do still exist. They are called betas. They make you feel exclusive and special. They also come with the caveat that it's an unfinished build, so gamers can believe the game will magically transform into everything they ever desired on release.
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Commercial betas are one of the biggest heap of **** I think we have saw this generation.
 
Yea betas are fail we want demos i.e closer to the finished product, not half ass beta codes, especially when the game is heavenly single player based.
 
ak22 said:
Yea betas are fail we want demos i.e closer to the finished product, not half ass beta codes
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That is the point though, these commercial betas ARE 99% finished code. People have not caught onto that yet and expect a total rewrite in 2 weeks and cry when the final release is exactly the same.
 
Mr Krugga said:
From my experience betas are usually a better representation of the final product than demos.
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Indeed.

My understanding is that most demos are wrapped up and signed off waaay before a game goes gold.

You also have those publishers/devs who release a demo AFTER the initial release when sales are starting to drop after the first few weeks.
 
On the other-hand, one reason for not releasing a demo could be due to the game being rubbish or at least requiring some major patching soon after or on release day.

I'm sure we've all had experiences of really bad demo that turned you off buying the full game; they can make or break the game.

So, don't release a demo, hype the game up as much as possible and hope enough suckers buy it on day one to turn some kind of profit.
 
Gimpymoo said:
Commercial betas are one of the biggest heap of **** I think we have saw this generation.
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I like the ideas of betas on the whole, but as you say ones with a commercial object (buy x game, play the beta for y game) are just a bastardised use of the term. I don't mind it so much if it's a legitimate beta (limited slots, properly stress testing), but when it's just used as a controllable demo and just to drive sales. No thanks.

It's certainly working for indie titles like Minecraft though, "pre-order" the game and play it throughout it's alpha/beta stages giving feedback and shaping the final release. It wouldn't have taken off if the beta hadn't been used "commercially"

As for demos... A lot of games still get them, just not the AAA titles so much. I'm sure most of the devs take cut down versions to the shows and like, so im surprised they don't just put a bit of polish on and send them out as demos. I guess for a AAA title that's garunteed to sell big, that extra effort isn't worth it in terms of cost Vs reward.
 
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An interesting topic, Gimpymoo.

Tbh, without sounding too negative, games have been so dumbed down these days most people would play a demo and never buy the actual game.

It is a shame, much of my purchasing back in the day depended on game demos. These days, I wait til release and for some other OcUKers to try it out.
 
orderoftheflame said:
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I agree.

As you say, if a game was a true "Beta" it would have to be limited with proper reporting in place, not just open to everyone who hands over their cash a few months early.

You are right regarding Minecraft, that is one commercial beta which is actually legitimate.

Obviously, the demo is a marketing tool so is it just the AAA publishers gain bigger rewards from spending their marketing budgets elsewhere nowadays? Although saying that, internal demos would exist and I would not think polishing them would cost a great deal maybe?
 
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Raoh said:
On the other-hand, one reason for not releasing a demo could be due to the game being rubbish or at least requiring some major patching soon after or on release day.

I'm sure we've all had experiences of really bad demo that turned you off buying the full game; they can make or break the game.

So, don't release a demo, hype the game up as much as possible and hope enough suckers buy it on day one to turn some kind of profit.
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And it seems to be working.
 
The piracy angle's a funny one, though.

Teh Hottness Part 74 ;) gets hyped to the moon and back, and at release there's no demo, just the full price game.

JoeBloggs93 comes along and thinks 'no way I'm paying 30 squids for that without trying it' and runs off to that-bay-where-the-pirates-are-at to grab a free copy.

Now, either he starts playing and decides he doesn't much care for it - in which case the pirate copy has done the same job as a demo - or, he likes it so much that he can't stop and ends up playing the whole damned thing and not spending a penny.

I know there's probably a good few of us on here who have used pirate copies as demos, before going and buying the real thing (if we liked it), but we're most certainly a minority next to all the JoeBloggs93's out there.

If they'd just give us good polished demos at or just before release, they'd either get a sale or not - and it wouldn't have one damned thing to do with piracy.
 
Shareholders. They don't want any full-fledged demos to interfere with the massive marketing budget they have allocated to convince everyone and their dog that the game is the best thing since sliced bread.

Hence the use of the term "Beta" and "Alpha" etc.
 
I remember the demo for UT2k4, you could only play the Torlan map in Onslaught mode, but it was online-play and hugely popular.

Last I heard there are still people playing that demo.
 
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