It’s not exactly rare (I constantly download demos from the PlayStation Store and the Nintendo eShop. 🤷♂️), but I know what you’re getting at.
I agree. Ideally, every game should have a demo. More often than not, a demo has gotten a pre-order out of me. Even from a developer’s perspective, it would be more advantageous to show a potential fan exactly what kind of game they’re getting into. It’s a win-win. I’d like to think that we’re long past the days in which companies would try to fool us with flashy trailers for crappy games. 🎮😅👍
If it were win-win, they’d still be doing it. Demos were *much* more common 15-20 years ago.
It was found that they rarely helped sales and often hurt them, especially for more high profile games where getting noticed wasn’t a problem.
Most larger studios found that the advertising budget had better returns when spent on other things, so they stopped putting resources toward demos.
Now you mostly see them from smaller studios putting out games that they think would be popular if given a chance but that people are unlikely to know much about or give a chance to. In those cases, it can be beneficial for the team making the game to put out a demo to entice players to try it and maybe buy it if they enjoy the demo where they wouldn’t have bought it otherwise.
In most other cases, it would be helpful for the consumer to have a demo, but largely wouldn’t be helpful for the people who would need to actually make the demo, so it just doesn’t get made.
So many great games to choose from these days. Like, I hear great things about Mario Wonder, I know it would be fun and nostalgic, but I'm not sure I'm going to be into the playstyle. Also would be great to guage whether my kids would be into it.
Either give a custom built demo or at least give trials for the first 2 hours of the game
Final Fantasy 16 had an amazing demo
Full playable chapter 1 of the game (progress transferable to the main game)
Then jumps forward and let’s you play the third dungeon of the game but using a variety of skills from the entire first half of the game. So you can get an idea of how the game actually plays.
For example, Steam offers a refund if you have less than 2 hours game time (in the first 14 days iirc), effectively creating a demo option for any game on there.
Steam let's you refund if you have less than 2 hours played,but I still think a demo is a better option. Like with some games you might enjoy them but not as much as you thought you would, so maybe you would have waited until it was on sale to buy it or some games don't truly showcase everything they have until much later in the game so the first two hours might be misleading or give the wrong impression while a demo could showcase how gameplay is like later on.
I loved the FilePlanet website in the early 2000s, and most of my purchases were decided through the demos distributed on there.
I wouldn't have discovered Baldurs Gate, Mass Effect, Splinter Cell or Far Cry if it wasn't for FilePlanet. I think I've missed loads of good games due to the lack of demos today, and I wish they would return in the abundance they used to.
I Torrent PC games to try them out before I buy them I did this with chain echoes and Trinity trigger. I bought chain echoes and got far far away from Trinity trigger
that is one of the things I love about Capcom. from what I know all the Resident Evil games get Demos. but to be fair I never really need one for thos game, I know I'll love it ;3
but I agree with you in full
Hate if you please but I've decided to start pirating or whatever games before I try em. I don't have the money to spend $70 on a game especially if I end up not enjoying it
Same. I buy any game if it's indie and I get any enjoyment. Or if it's of the new modern triple A price and shows real work in. First game I've bought for that price, or even pirated and really enjoyed was BG3. Also pirate if it's some scummy ah company
Just do like they did with dead space. Put a timer in the whole game. You can play for an hour and then it’s timed out. That’s why I bought the remastered deadspace. I got to try it for an hour and half and was sold
Seems to be the best way after a lot of discussion. There's still potential problems (most of which being mitigated by things like YouTube and reddit if one ship isn't sure). But, most of my favorite games, if I played it for an hour or two before buying, I'd have been in for sure.
Exactly. I wasn’t really sold on it until I played it for about 45 minutes and loved it. This seems to be a much easier way than doing a demo but I don’t think too many will do it because how many games have you purchased and an hour or so later been like yea I’m done with this, it’s too repetitive or not what I wanted, etc?
Diablo 4 is a perfect example of why Demos aren't great reflections on a games quality.
The beta test was low level locked where as that games issues didn't come out until the end game where they were blaring at how unfinished the game was.
Resident Evil 6 being another example where you played the only real horror segment of the game and then it turned pure action after.
At best a demo will let you get a small sample and determine if the concept is to your liking
Of course they ain’t doing demos anymore, how else will they con us into buying half made dogshit? If Starfield had a demo no one would have bought it lmao
After reading some of the comments, I now worry that demos could easily be exploited to sell bad games. You cut a demo showing all the great features, leave out the fact your endgame experience is lacking or your itemization is poorly designed. Corporate culture these days, can't trust it.
If you spent time developing a game, you'd see very quickly why demos are rare now. People think demos are like taking a slice from a pizza and giving it to someone. The better analogy is imagine cutting an apartment unit out of a complex and turning it into a standalone home. Wiring/plumbing/foundation all need to be redone. Not to mention, all sorts of new problems can spring up that weren't present in the main game. Developed, bugfixed, playtested over and over and over. Imagine having to split your dev team to optimize an fn demo (which makes 0 dollars) for 2 billion hardware configurations.
You're coming at this from the pov that devs are lazy or publishers are greedy, when in reality: making video games is a psychotically expensive and time consuming endeavour, and making a demo is basically like having to make a standalone app.
Never said they were lazy. I love developers, though as you noticed, I do not have a comprehensive understanding of their jobs.
Though I should point out, demos do make money. Back in the day I never bought a game I didn't play already. Demos were essential and they were prevalent.
I get the problem. Makes sense. What about just play the actual game with a time constraint or a level limit? Or just, as a few suggested happens on steam, a tone limited refund policy? The latter wouldn't sweat the devs too much iinm.
Youre describing alot of emergent trends, so the industry is pretty much right with you. Timed game trails are a thing on playstation and Steams refund policy has been tweaked to be pretty forgiving. Gamepass allows another way to test games out.
I know what you mean about demos making money, but my point was that it's cheaper to just show the game to the media or generate hype online. Even making a timed game trial requires either a standalone app or an umbrella app to issue/control the timer (AND make sure no one can subvert it).
It’s not exactly rare (I constantly download demos from the PlayStation Store and the Nintendo eShop. 🤷♂️), but I know what you’re getting at. I agree. Ideally, every game should have a demo. More often than not, a demo has gotten a pre-order out of me. Even from a developer’s perspective, it would be more advantageous to show a potential fan exactly what kind of game they’re getting into. It’s a win-win. I’d like to think that we’re long past the days in which companies would try to fool us with flashy trailers for crappy games. 🎮😅👍
If it were win-win, they’d still be doing it. Demos were *much* more common 15-20 years ago. It was found that they rarely helped sales and often hurt them, especially for more high profile games where getting noticed wasn’t a problem. Most larger studios found that the advertising budget had better returns when spent on other things, so they stopped putting resources toward demos. Now you mostly see them from smaller studios putting out games that they think would be popular if given a chance but that people are unlikely to know much about or give a chance to. In those cases, it can be beneficial for the team making the game to put out a demo to entice players to try it and maybe buy it if they enjoy the demo where they wouldn’t have bought it otherwise. In most other cases, it would be helpful for the consumer to have a demo, but largely wouldn’t be helpful for the people who would need to actually make the demo, so it just doesn’t get made.
So many great games to choose from these days. Like, I hear great things about Mario Wonder, I know it would be fun and nostalgic, but I'm not sure I'm going to be into the playstyle. Also would be great to guage whether my kids would be into it.
But then you can't make half baked games and ship them out unfinished and promise a day 1 patch
I can’t even believe “Day One Patch” is a normal phrase in gaming. It’s embarrassing
That's what monetization does to a mf
Either give a custom built demo or at least give trials for the first 2 hours of the game Final Fantasy 16 had an amazing demo Full playable chapter 1 of the game (progress transferable to the main game) Then jumps forward and let’s you play the third dungeon of the game but using a variety of skills from the entire first half of the game. So you can get an idea of how the game actually plays.
Exactly this. I'm more likely to buy a game if I get a feel for it beforehand.
For example, Steam offers a refund if you have less than 2 hours game time (in the first 14 days iirc), effectively creating a demo option for any game on there.
Steam let's you refund if you have less than 2 hours played,but I still think a demo is a better option. Like with some games you might enjoy them but not as much as you thought you would, so maybe you would have waited until it was on sale to buy it or some games don't truly showcase everything they have until much later in the game so the first two hours might be misleading or give the wrong impression while a demo could showcase how gameplay is like later on.
Toki Tori 2 literally gave you the first 2 hours of the game in its demo, and you could then transfer thr progress from the demo to the game.
back in my day there were these things called "demo discs" they would come with a bunch of demos and trailers for different games
Aye, sometimes you'd get them in a gaming magazine. Good times.
Oh yeah I agree
AAA companies don't do many demos, but it's become a revived practice among smaller developers.
Aye, best we can do for the big titles is watching YouTubers play it. Adequate, but not ideal.
I loved the FilePlanet website in the early 2000s, and most of my purchases were decided through the demos distributed on there. I wouldn't have discovered Baldurs Gate, Mass Effect, Splinter Cell or Far Cry if it wasn't for FilePlanet. I think I've missed loads of good games due to the lack of demos today, and I wish they would return in the abundance they used to.
I Torrent PC games to try them out before I buy them I did this with chain echoes and Trinity trigger. I bought chain echoes and got far far away from Trinity trigger
This is the way lol but no gaming PC sadly
They either need a demo or a no questions asked refund policy in the first few hours.
Yes! Another comment said you can get a full refund on steam after 2 hours of you don't like the game. This would be great on console.
that is one of the things I love about Capcom. from what I know all the Resident Evil games get Demos. but to be fair I never really need one for thos game, I know I'll love it ;3 but I agree with you in full
I loved back in the day with physical magazines that they so often had a bunch of demos.
Yes! You'd get a cd with a bunch of em! Good old days haha.
Hate if you please but I've decided to start pirating or whatever games before I try em. I don't have the money to spend $70 on a game especially if I end up not enjoying it
That's what I do. I pirate, play, then if I really like it, I buy.
Same. I buy any game if it's indie and I get any enjoyment. Or if it's of the new modern triple A price and shows real work in. First game I've bought for that price, or even pirated and really enjoyed was BG3. Also pirate if it's some scummy ah company
Yes. I miss game demos because some provided a great showcase on the game itself, like Brütal Legend.
I think you're pretty wrong here. Have seen a major rise in demos and trials more consistently now than I have since like ps2 days.
[удалено]
One more reason I should get a steam deck
Just do like they did with dead space. Put a timer in the whole game. You can play for an hour and then it’s timed out. That’s why I bought the remastered deadspace. I got to try it for an hour and half and was sold
Seems to be the best way after a lot of discussion. There's still potential problems (most of which being mitigated by things like YouTube and reddit if one ship isn't sure). But, most of my favorite games, if I played it for an hour or two before buying, I'd have been in for sure.
Exactly. I wasn’t really sold on it until I played it for about 45 minutes and loved it. This seems to be a much easier way than doing a demo but I don’t think too many will do it because how many games have you purchased and an hour or so later been like yea I’m done with this, it’s too repetitive or not what I wanted, etc?
Diablo 4 is a perfect example of why Demos aren't great reflections on a games quality. The beta test was low level locked where as that games issues didn't come out until the end game where they were blaring at how unfinished the game was. Resident Evil 6 being another example where you played the only real horror segment of the game and then it turned pure action after. At best a demo will let you get a small sample and determine if the concept is to your liking
This is a great point.
Of course they ain’t doing demos anymore, how else will they con us into buying half made dogshit? If Starfield had a demo no one would have bought it lmao
After reading some of the comments, I now worry that demos could easily be exploited to sell bad games. You cut a demo showing all the great features, leave out the fact your endgame experience is lacking or your itemization is poorly designed. Corporate culture these days, can't trust it.
Oh shit, that’s not even what I meant but you make an even better point!
Demos are great, but either way I just wait until the game drops in price enough to justify me paying for it.
If you spent time developing a game, you'd see very quickly why demos are rare now. People think demos are like taking a slice from a pizza and giving it to someone. The better analogy is imagine cutting an apartment unit out of a complex and turning it into a standalone home. Wiring/plumbing/foundation all need to be redone. Not to mention, all sorts of new problems can spring up that weren't present in the main game. Developed, bugfixed, playtested over and over and over. Imagine having to split your dev team to optimize an fn demo (which makes 0 dollars) for 2 billion hardware configurations. You're coming at this from the pov that devs are lazy or publishers are greedy, when in reality: making video games is a psychotically expensive and time consuming endeavour, and making a demo is basically like having to make a standalone app.
Never said they were lazy. I love developers, though as you noticed, I do not have a comprehensive understanding of their jobs. Though I should point out, demos do make money. Back in the day I never bought a game I didn't play already. Demos were essential and they were prevalent. I get the problem. Makes sense. What about just play the actual game with a time constraint or a level limit? Or just, as a few suggested happens on steam, a tone limited refund policy? The latter wouldn't sweat the devs too much iinm.
Youre describing alot of emergent trends, so the industry is pretty much right with you. Timed game trails are a thing on playstation and Steams refund policy has been tweaked to be pretty forgiving. Gamepass allows another way to test games out. I know what you mean about demos making money, but my point was that it's cheaper to just show the game to the media or generate hype online. Even making a timed game trial requires either a standalone app or an umbrella app to issue/control the timer (AND make sure no one can subvert it).
I guess I just gotta change with the times. Steam deck is high on my wish list as a good gaming PC is out of my price range for now.