Demos

[DerBear]

Has anyone noticed over the last year that companies aren't releasing as many demos for the PS3/Xbox 360 as they once were? Around a year or two ago a demo came out for nearly ever game that was coming onto the market and you barely see a demo for a high end game these days. I mean sure games like Dead Space 3 released a demo and few games have. But I've noticed a significant reduction in the amount of demos that appear.

I don't know if its because the sales have shown to be improved if no demo is released or if the lack of interest in demos have had a significant impact but honestly demos seem like a thing of the past. Maybe its just me but I went into the PSN store to see the latest demos and I can't say I was impressed....

[thatguywhosaysEH]

I believe that the amount of demos is lacking for two reasons:

1. By making a demo people that are interested will try it, if they do not like it they will not buy the game. If there was no demo they most likely would have bought it.

2. High end games do not need a demo. The companies know that, even without a demo, a large amount of people will but their game. Since so many people will be buying their game they feel no need to spend time and resources on demos.

[Mirage]

Hm, that's quite true. I hadn't noticed until you mentioned but you're totally right!

[Cygnus]

Well, mediocre games are starting to be an extremely common thing, you want people to buy your game before they realize how mediocre it is. With current media developers prefer to base the previews on trailers rather than actual demos.

[TheMatrix]

Demos are incredibly time-consuming to make. They're also potentially expensive, which I'll get to in a minute.

When you make a demo, you have to decide what goes in it. Then you have to take out everything else, which is time-consuming, as you have to change a bunch of things.

It can also be expensive, depending on the licenses of your software. Some game engines' parent companies charge you, the developer, money for release of any game. And then there's the distribution, Sony and Microsoft aren't doing it for free, I'd imagine.

And of course, people buy it anyways, so why bother?

[Twilly F. Sniper]

Well, mediocre games are starting to be an extremely common thing, you want people to buy your game before they realize how mediocre it is. With current media developers prefer to base the previews on trailers rather than actual demos.

False. Most games don't even release TRAILERS anymore.
Could be because FEWER and FEWER mediocre games are being released, and more blockbuster titles.

[Azunite]

In my time, demos were so released so often and they were so fun I spent a lot of my time playing them instead of the original games.

[Cygnus]

False. Most games don't even release TRAILERS anymore.
Could be because FEWER and FEWER mediocre games are being released, and more blockbuster titles.

Those blockbuster titles ARE mediocre my good sir.

[Magus]

In the olden days. Demos were made to showcase the upcoming console and its capabilities and the titles that are going to come. Sometimes, some video game came with a demo.

[Twilly F. Sniper]

Those blockbuster titles ARE mediocre my good sir.

So, pretty much every new game coming out is mediocre? Opinionated post.

[Cygnus]

So, pretty much every new game coming out is mediocre? Opinionated post.

I never said ALL of them, however a good amount of them are just being copied and pasted, or too action oriented, and there are a good amount of those out there.

[Rayquaza]

With PS3, not to mention there's Playstation Plus which allows a demo of a 1 hour trial of the game. You still have to pay for a membership though, it's not free.

[DerBear]

Playstation Plus isn't worth the money, you hand back everything you had free at the end of the year and you can't access your online storage to take the stuff back out so you can't access your game data.

Its a load of crap.

[TheMatrix]

Playstation Plus isn't worth the money, you hand back everything you had free at the end of the year and you can't access your online storage to take the stuff back out so you can't access your game data.

Its a load of crap.

It's called "vendor lock-in". You want your stuff, you gotta keep paying.
This is why I prefer the discs -- it's harder to do that.

[DerBear]

It's called "vendor lock-in". You want your stuff, you gotta keep paying.
This is why I prefer the discs -- it's harder to do that.

Yeah I know and so do I Thomas.

The interesting thing is, when playsation plus first came out. You were not limited to the vendor unlock system. What you downloaded was yours and yours alone. However, when they started giving more full games away like Infamous 2 they decided to implement this system. I remember the first year Playsation Plus was out because I bought it and you kept what your downloaded but the first year it came out it wasn't anything good, you got Little Big Planet and then some trails and backgrounds and avatars.

I guess I have some negative feeling towards Playsation Plus, mostly because I can't access some of my own save files because it won't let me go into the online storage system....