the no demo triple A madness

[cliffski]

There is NO demo of Sid meiers new Pirates game.
Am I interested in buying it? YES
Will I gamble £35 on it being any good? NO
So I have to resort to trawling the P2P programs looking for a hacked copy, and if none is found, there is no sale.
This is insanity.
why dont they do it?
surely not ALL their potential customers buy on hype alone?
bah!

[JoeMaru]

but that is how the game industry works for big titles. Hype sells.. not quality.

Why lose a potential sale on someone who would spend the money to get it (but plays the demo then decides it is not worth it).

Better to just ignore those that like to demo before buying and concentrate on getting the $$$ of those who will buy it based on marketing hype.

Note that this is not how I think it *should* be.. but it works.

[EpicBoy]

The truth of the matter is that hardcore early adopters will buy the game anyway, so it makes sense to release the game as soon as it's ready and work on the demo during the initial sales period where the demo is all but irrelevant anyway. Then, a few weeks later, the demo hits and the people who needed convincing will start buying at that time.

[PoV]

Yeah, watch me reminis, and attempt to back up Epicboy's point with me as the guinnipig.

It was a sad day, some months ago (perhaps last year) I was totally psyched to get and play Diversion's One Must Fall 2, being a huge fan of #1 (the finest 2D fighter on the PC ). I was ready to buy the game, but it ends up it was delayed. The developer was nice enough to release a demo to compensate for the delay, so I quickly grabbed that up. *gasp*, I was gonna buy this? Now I was happy to save the $50, but this bastard child of a 3d shooter and fighter ruined me and one of my greatest childhood gaming memories, and I'll never be the same. . Now I play Soul Callibur 2.

Flip side. Gish. Game was released without a demo. I paniced! I had to play this game, so I bought it on an impulse. The controls did feel a tad clumsy (can't think of how to improve them however), but I got what I wanted out of the game. Had there been a demo, I have just played that and been satisfied.

So yeah, given what I've seen, I think the trick is to build some hype, release the game, then take your time and do the demo thang. At least that's what I plan to try.

Which should bring us to our next topic, how to build hype? . Someone else feel free to start that one.

Another one, for fun. Painkiller. This game is cool. I would have never bought the game anyways, but they have one of the finest demo's I've played, a fantastic showing of Havok at the time. But unlike other demo's, it appears to jump all over the place. They appear to give you 3 or 5 unconnected levels to play (either that or I'm too ignorant to figure out that they are connected), where most games give you the first few or a chapter. Now, is that a good way to preview a game? I have my doubts, but I'd like to hear to hear other thoughts.

[Diodor Bitan]

They probably will release a demo movie, so you can decide on that.

[cliffski]

a movie is no good. games are all about interaction. a movie of a game is like watching the pop video without hearing the song.
Its not hard for games companies to make demos, even though they claim its too much work. Unless your hype exceeds the quality of the game, you should always release a demo.
sadly with most titles, the hype DOES exceed the wuality of the game ;(

[DangerCode]

Sometimes it is very hard to push a game out the door and then garner up the strength for a good demo. I wouldn't be surprised if a demo was to come later but first the devs probably need a break.

[Vectrex]

its like a shop that doesn't have a price tag on anything, I walk straight out the door