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Post by trog @ 01:30pm 19/04/10 | 47 Comments
 He said: “A free demo is a luxury we have in the game industry that we don’t have in other industries such as film. Because we’ve had this free luxury for so long, now there are plans to change this people are complaining about it. The reality is that we might not see any free game demos in the long term.”He's also not sure if a demo of Crysis will be released. This comes on the heels of EA somewhat casually mentioning that they're thinking about charging for a game sample. There's certainly a lot of gamers that, when justifying certain piratical tendencies, indicate that their motivation is simply to see if the game is worth buying, which certainly seems like a valid point when you're about to drop up to $100 on a game. With that in mind it seems almost sheer lunacy to me to stop releasing free demos, but I guess we'll have to wait and see what happens. 
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Posted 01:36pm 19/4/10
Posted 01:40pm 19/4/10
Posted 01:40pm 19/4/10
a game costs near on $100 and you dedicate a lot of time towards its. if you don't like it , there's nothing much you can do about it but play your moneys worth, even if it is a terrible game.
game demos help you decide whether you want to buy a game or not. In my opinion i think it would actually help undecided people to buy the game.
Posted 01:44pm 19/4/10
im confused.
Posted 01:58pm 19/4/10
This kind of shit would just be a gateway to piracy, pirate the demo... well seeing as im already a pirate, may as well pirate the whole thing.
Posted 02:04pm 19/4/10
Posted 02:05pm 19/4/10
If people want to try the game but the demo costs money, they'll just download the whole game. And then because they now have the whole game, they'll be less inclined to purchase it whether they like it or not.
Posted 02:09pm 19/4/10
If you're a game developer and you love your game you think it's fun then having a demo is the best marketing tool you have. Of course if you're EA and make 95% shit games then it's your worst tool.
rec: Yeah but a trailer isn't the same as a demo. Both the full film and trailer are viewed, while the game trailer is viewed and the game is played.
last edited by greazy at 14:09:51 19/Apr/10
Posted 02:12pm 19/4/10
Posted 02:13pm 19/4/10
Umm, like a trailer !? What a tool.
Edit: I now see others have the same thought.
Posted 02:13pm 19/4/10
Those demos had major impacts on the sales numbers.
This is nothing more then greed.
Posted 02:23pm 19/4/10
Why is Ea so damn greedy? Game demo's are generally short and they want to charge money for them?
Posted 02:29pm 19/4/10
You play a game, you play a demo
i agree that charging for demos is only going to increase piracy... Maybe this is only the tip of the iceberg as DRM becomes harder to bypass. I guess we may see more DRM requiring permanent access to the net.
Although we are approaching 2012... maybe this is just the beginning. Next will be the pay to view TV adverts :-\
Posted 02:41pm 19/4/10
what? - http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/
Also, I am not going to pay $100 for a movie - I'm paying $10-$20
If I sink $100 into something and it's completely shit, I'm going to get my money back
where as if I play the demo and it's completely shit, they just won't get my money period
seems to me the only way they're going to benefit from this is where people who buy the game out of pure hope + hate it won't return it because they're lazy?
Posted 02:50pm 19/4/10
That doesn't make much sense to me. Both are previews of full, finished products that give you ideas on how it will play out. How is it different if you play one and watch the other? Without trailers how well do you think the movie industry would do? Or rather if they charged for you to view the trailers. Who the shit would do that?
Posted 02:54pm 19/4/10
I wouldn't be surprised at all.
Plenty of advertisers seem to be forgetting what advertising is meant to achieve.
Yes that includes you EA & Crytek.
Posted 02:54pm 19/4/10
Posted 02:55pm 19/4/10
Specific examples would be MMO's like Warhammer online. Their advertising campaign consisted of cool renders of their cut scenes, videos of their classes in fancy fight, but none of it gives the user a good idea of what the game will be like.
Posted 03:01pm 19/4/10
I don't like buy something 'just because', especially when it's $80+
That's the whole beauty of the old shareware model, it actually got people invested and hooked on the game. These days with online purchasing it would be even easier to progress that towards a conversion. Hell you could put the payment gateway right into the bloody game.
Posted 03:08pm 19/4/10
Posted 03:16pm 19/4/10
Final Fantasy*
Posted 04:15pm 19/4/10
Posted 04:56pm 19/4/10
That doesn't add up.
Posted 05:23pm 19/4/10
Also, releasing a demo has HURT many game sales (AVP anyone?).
Having no ability to smell a big pile of shit before paying for the big pile of shit probably makes selling a big pile of shit easier.
Posted 05:35pm 19/4/10
Just some douchebaggery on the part of Crytek. Next they'll blame something on piracy.
Posted 05:48pm 19/4/10
Most movie trailers look good, just look at Clash of the Titans. They are ads pure and simple. While a demo of a good game can work like an advertisement it can not do the same for a piss poor game. A trailer on the other hand can make the shittest movie of all time, Clash of the Titans, look good. This is what he means by the film industry not having demos and he is 100% correct.
That said, cars have test drives, TV shows have pilots, beer tours have sample of beer and many other products have either money back guarantees or try before you buy options. If you walk out on a film within the first 30 minutes you can get a refund. If you purchase a game on Steam and it turns out to be a steaming pile of ass, you're shit out of luck.
last edited by deadlyf at 17:48:51 19/Apr/10
Posted 05:57pm 19/4/10
Posted 06:13pm 19/4/10
Whilst the demo was better then nothing.. it is possible the developers wanting to save the integrity of the product would rather show us video footage of the game (especially when gameplay hasn't really changed that much in the last 10 years) then give us a sample in the form of a demo.
Posted 06:30pm 19/4/10
Lately even the demos have weighed in at a few gigs and for them to keep serving up say 2gb for everyone who wants to play the demo is probably starting to cost them and is eating into their big fat bonus at the end of the year.
This is another reason I tend to stay away from buying games off steam, that way if the game is terrible I can at least try to get a refund and at the very least I can yell at someone in the store and hopefully someone about to buy the game will hear me and think twice (or offer to buy my copy :p).
Posted 06:49pm 19/4/10
Posted 06:54pm 19/4/10
When video games become as small of a cash commitment as movies i will agree that demos are no longer needed. currently i can go see a movie for $12 before any food and crap, a game will cost me at least $40 second hand, and $80-$120 full cost. If i need to buy a demo, if had best be a hell of a lot more than most demos are now. Either way, i wont be paying for a demo.
Posted 07:13pm 19/4/10
Posted 08:01pm 19/4/10
People need to stop buying into this shit.
Posted 08:12pm 19/4/10
if there are no demos guess we will have to wait for the reviews or travel the high seas, pillage, download and burn...i know which more and more people will do if this starts happening.
i blame consoles...cash cows mooooo.
Posted 08:40pm 19/4/10
imo they are much cleverer games and have a different style of crafting put into them which shows when compared to the AAA titles
Posted 10:35pm 19/4/10
2) This won't increase piracy. To believe that would be to legitimise the pathetic excuses pirates give for breaking the law. No, they will pirate just the same. But what we don't need is to hand them yet another justification on a silver platter, giving the appearance their BS holds any weight. Lack of demos is already a common excuse among pirates, even though we have demos. Why prove them right?
3) This is stupid. Demos won't go away. Granted, many big publishers will forgo demos for a model where the core game is cheap or free, but significantly shortened - comparable to the size of a demo - leaving paid and online-authenticated DLC (or subscription-based MMO content) to expand the game a module at a time to what we now see as a normal-sized game. Smaller publishers will still use the demo and/or shareware model. Demos will still be there, but their definition may expand to include this cutback, DLC-ready core content.
Or, PC gaming goes the OnLive way, and we don't have free demos because you can rent 5 minutes of game time for next to nothing and decide from there if you want to play for longer.
Posted 11:03pm 19/4/10
Posted 11:47pm 19/4/10
Blizzard have never ever disappointed me and I know they will release a truly excellent game every time. Bioware because I've liked all their other games, although I have more trust in Blizzard.
Any other company can get stuffed, except maybe the Civilization franchise. I will not EVER pay for a demo of a game, lol shareware.
Posted 12:15am 20/4/10
Posted 02:42am 20/4/10
Posted 07:21am 20/4/10
Posted 09:05am 20/4/10
Posted 09:41am 20/4/10
Posted 10:04am 20/4/10
downloadable demo, and buy+download full title online or gtfo
Posted 10:10am 20/4/10
I think any attempt by developers to remove playable demos all together will bite them on the cock
Surely there aren't *that* many drones who buy games just because of the marketing? .. right
Posted 10:33am 20/4/10
only problem is that they don't allow returns on alot of games that require a CD key (unless they've changed that from last i went).
tbh, i can't remember the last time i played a demo. I struggle enough as it is to keep under my download quota.
Posted 02:56pm 27/4/10
These policies together mean you can even buy at EB, find the same game at another store a few days later, go back to EB, and have them refund the difference in price.
Really, how can you go wrong?
I've bought and returned a ton of amazingly bad Wii and DS games there, and a few PC games.
They do have a relatively small selection though.
When Game opened they claimed to match EB... then it turns out they'll only price match stores in the same shopping centre.
Oh, and they don't allow returns on any games with CD keys, which is virtually all the PC ones.
Never shopped there since, except to buy Mirror's Edge for $4. Twice.
Even then I almost had to argue with the guy about their stupid rewards card.
Me: No cards, just the game.
Him: Do you have a rewards card?
Me: No cards, don't have one, don't want one.
Him: You don't know what you're missing.
Me: Yes I do.
The rest of my games I buy on Steam, although I have a huge issue with the inability to transfer games between Steam accounts.
It means I'm fundamentally unable to resell a game, or even to loan a game to a mate unless I entrust him with my Steam password (which I believe is also technically against the Steam EULA).
Also, as others have mentioned, I have no way of getting a refund on Steam.
Regarding download quotas, I don't have one. Hooray for unlimited!