why dont developers make playable demos anymore?

[hiyall]

i feel like demos boost sales or rather decrease sales if it was a poorly made game. but for me, and i am sure for a lot of other people too, i would love to demo a game before paying money for it and then end up not liking it. i know their is a refund policy but sometimes setup takes 30 minutes or even an hour or two if you are having hardware / launching problems

[FFL2and3rocks]

Because demos cost more time and money to make than most people realize, and often convince people not to buy the game (even if the game isn't "poorly made").

[rawWwRrr]

Some still do, but yeah not as prevalent as they used to be.

[Theblaze]

A pure "demo" never represented the full version of the game anyways, so what you saw in a demo version might be completely different in the full version.

[8ullfrog]

The excuse I've seen time and again is that it takes money away from the actual game development and actually hurts sales.

My two favorite demos are Jedi Knight 2 (Was pretty much just the first level) and C&C generals.

If I've only got a small user space, sometimes I'll play that generals map like Tetris. Take and hold the enemy bases against orders, and just let the captured oil wells stack up cash.

You're supposed to play it conventionally, follow the prompts, and blow up the enemy chemical weapons factory. pfffft.

[ReBoot]

Because consumers nowadays prefer buying off marketing hype rather than informed decisions.

[🍋 Lemonfed 🍋]

the benefit of a demo are obviously not good enough if most developers stopped doing them , it's good if a game is not well known but won't get more copies sold if peoples already know of the game existence and what the gameplay is like.

[Crazy Tiger]

Demos existed back in the day to generate exposure. Pc magazines with demo discs often were one of the few channels to get the game known to the public.

Nowadays with the internet and information a click away, that purpose is redundant.

[CORBINLORD]

Laziness or feeling the lack of need for it, and cutting corners on costs.

Especially now that "early access" and "youtube" exist. Ther's the exposure.
The only "real need" of a demo is to see if your system is compatible.
That's why some devs do beta testing, either public or closed.

[Count_Dandyman]

Originally posted by Crazy Tiger:

Demos existed back in the day to generate exposure. Pc magazines with demo discs often were one of the few channels to get the game known to the public.

Nowadays with the internet and information a click away, that purpose is redundant.

And back then you would have plenty of people so satisfied by playing the demo that they saw no reason to bother getting the full game. It was considered acceptable losses at the time to give up on that group in order to get them to spread the word to others but nowadays there is no point losing those sales when just giving a free copy to the right person will see the message spread to a global audience.

[LeftPaw]

Of the top of my head I'd say it's because the game is half baked and a demo might expose this.
I remember a time when near every game came with a demo free on the cover of mags.

[CORBINLORD]

Originally posted by Xuser:

Of the top of my head I'd say it's because the game is half baked and a demo might expose this.
I remember a time when near every game came with a demo free on the cover of mags.

or as they call it now...early access!

Offtopic, but you got some coconut sized cahonas using an X-ed out steam logo and an epic games profile photo. It's kind of an oxy-moron that you continually use the steam forums though...but whatever tickles ya I guess.

[Treveri]

I personally don't see a need anymore. Just go watch a game play video on YouTube (as much as I hate YouTube).

[Start_Running]

Originally posted by Treveri:

I personally don't see a need anymore. Just go watch a game play video on YouTube (as much as I hate YouTube).

^This.

OP Remember there are 9 possible scenarios for Games with demos and only two of those scenarios result in an improvement. Ironically. A demo is more likely to increase the sales of a bad game, than it is to increase the sales of a good game.

Demos were alot easier when a game and its mechanics coiuld be easily parcelled. The mechanices were simple and the design was level based. Baxck then there was also no real feasible way to show game playe footage.

[Tito Shivan]

TL:DR version: They cost money and don't bring up sales.
non TL:DR version:

Originally posted by Crazy Tiger:

Demos existed back in the day to generate exposure. Pc magazines with demo discs often were one of the few channels to get the game known to the public.

Nowadays with the internet and information a click away, that purpose is redundant.

Demos were the digital version of the appetizers offered for free at a shop. Nowadays with Youtube, Twitch et al there's lots of people showing the game around as to give a free sample

Originally posted by Xuser:

Of the top of my head I'd say it's because the game is half baked and a demo might expose this.

And a demo is not the game and the game is not the demo. A demo from a full game can run flawless when the game has flaws or vice-versa. That creates a bad impression either case. Anoter reason why demos were deprecated

Originally posted by Xuser:

I remember a time when near every game came with a demo free on the cover of mags.

As said above it's all about EXPOSURE.
Back when the way of knowing about software or games was offline through magazines the best way to advertise your game was to give a taste of it. Nowadays people don't read about games on written magazines. There's a whole lot of data online telling and showing you everything about any given game.
Now it's youtubers and streamers the ones 'demoing' games instead of a magazine CD.

[uanime5]

Extra credits covered this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QM6LoaqEnY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vecHJW-tFs