Are companies these days choosing not to release demo's because they know their games are bad.

[deathrow_nzl]

I am a person that likes to try everything before I buy

I know you have a 2 hour refund window but that's not enough in my opinion.
I do like the free weekend idea though that some games offer,, Of course that is only useful if you are not buy that weekend

A Demo is just the first few levels or maps of a game.

Some of them might be quite big download if most of the resources are used in the first few levels. But I don't see how this would be a difficult task to release a demo after they more less finish making the game,,


Being old school I saw demos like the Doom 1 & 2 and Wolfenstein 3D demos were the first episode which is like 20% of the whole.

These possible solutions that allow me to try before I buy

Try at a friends house or cybercafe or wait for a free weekend.. Usually never happens or if it does normally in a exam week of something

Get it off steam and play for 2 hours.. I probably wont buy the game though this because I will probably spend most of my time waiting for the game to update, playing the tutorial and creating my character.

Download the demo.. I have brought a lot of good games after playing the demo..
This is also why I am suspicious..
If it is a bad game chances are companies are not going to want to release a demo.

Pirate the game in place of a demo, is a method I know that a lot of people use in place of a demo and do actually by the game..

Ok a lot of games i have got in bundles for like 20 cents brought without trying But on the exception of Warhammer Vermintide, Elder scrolls online and Madmax that I couldn't find away to try it first I have never bought a game that cost more then a couple of dollars without trying it first and I have like 300 games..

Anyway I have a theory.. as with games like No Mans Lie and Watchdogs people know their games are bad and that is why they refuse to release demos.
2 hours play of Watchdog or No mans sky for exampleis not enough time to realise that it didn't live up to its expectations

[Gallifrey - CSSC Gaming Founder]

I think the bigger issue is that games no longer have "levels". Breaking things down so that someone can just play part of a modern game can be impossibly difficult.

The free weekends are awesome if you really want to check out the game. But the buyer has so many more tools available. Promotional videos on tap. Let's Play videos on You Tube. Steam reviews.

Piracy is illegal and a banned topic here.

The problem for devs today is the truth will out very quickly. If the game is pants only those intrepid souls who pre-purchased it are likely to buy it.

S.x.

[Spambot71 (main character)]

Demos proved to reduce sales even when the games were GOOD.

S no, they stopped releasing demos because they were a detrimental cost.

[Black Blade]

I think these answer it pretty clearly and well
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QM6LoaqEnY&t=1s

TL:DW (Watch)
Demos are more likely to make the game lose sales then earn sales over all, and cost money, so its basically paying for most likely selling less

[deathrow_nzl]

Originally posted by Spambot71 (main character):

Demos proved to reduce sales even when the games were GOOD.

S no, they stopped releasing demos because they were a detrimental cost.

A lot of games though that people think are "good" though.. Like Fallout New Vegas, Civilision and World of warcraft I actually hated when I had the chance to play them.

So a good game to some is not a good game to everyone...

I also like a few games that people consider to be bad games like Triadwars (Sort of sleeping dogs 2) and some of mdikies games

[deathrow_nzl]

Originally posted by Black Blade (Card Idle):

I think these answer it pretty clearly and well
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QM6LoaqEnY&t=1s

TL:DW (Watch)
Demos are more likely to make the game lose sales then earn sales over all, and cost money, so its basically paying for most likely selling less

Yeah that was a pretty good video... basically it is our fully as the consumer that there are no demo's.. Not exactly what I expected..
I expected there to be and increase in sales from people downloading and trying the demo legally instead of a hacked version from a torrent site and then getting lazy because they already have the fullgame on their PC.

[Nice]

Way, waaaay too many reasons.
First and foremost above all: time and cost.

Its way different making a demo(and games) nowadays then before mostly because of scale and risk. From indies to AAA studios everybody fights against deadlines and cuts because theres way more to manage- need more artists, coders... overall complexity is bigger and those few brave that do complex games with small teams take way longer to progress.

And it so happens that demos need time and polish they can't have the luxury to make.
Its even worse that pipelines nowadays run so much in parallel (out of necessity); That means the complete feel you're aiming for is only seen close to launch.
So:
A) You release a demo of the game as is lacking lots of what it will have and stuff that will be cut or changed
B)You stop production even more to make a really complete slice of it all for the demo- double or triple time wasted with the risk of still needing to change later on or 'we can't strife from the demo now guys'
C) You do either A, B or a compromise in between in less time then the huge time it takes to make a proper good demo- and now your game will be seen as riddled with bugs before release.

Put on top of that a common lack of innovation (normal in every field- the less original ideas in a industry the easier for new projects to be original), how having a taste dimishs hype more frequently then the oposite and simple burn- by the time your game gets released people will have played or seen it being played (the demo) enougth for it to not feel as fresh as before and there you have it. We live in a age where 'new' trumps originality and quality, sad but true.

Demos can shift perception of a title coldly received by announcements and marketing; Can- if the game idea *and* the demo (including polish) deliver. Where there was no hype it can be made.
Most often however Hype sells more, way more. Its just like passion- customers project their desires of a 'ideal game' on the promises with expectation it will reach or come close to what they imagined it could be. Imagination and expectation knows no limits- its so rare to meet or surpass it the few that do are the citizen kanes and half-lifes. Just like love- you think she/he is the one... and how many divorces we see? They're never like we picture then.

Once upon a time we didn't had fast and ubiquous internet. There was no youtube and no one click viral shares. You knew about a game from a one-page ad in a magazine if that much- if you were trully a hardcore gamer you could have seen a trailer, most didn't. Heck they used to ship trailers of upcoming games within games to get a bit more reach.
At that same time slow downloads and stuff and you got your gaming feed from magazine's cds.
So yeah, once upon a time demos were worth the effort. They could backfire hype into disappointment just as easily as today (if we don't count the ridiculous hype things can get today- yeah, im looking at you No Mans Sky) - but the small margin of sucess was way better then not having one.

Oh yeah, and the market wasn't as flooded so the buyer hadn't as many choices- so your so-so game would sell even with a not stellar demo.

Heck, of the current game demos ive played just short of half of then i ended up buying- and im a avid buyer with varied taste. Some of those i didn't buy i could had in a impulse buy if i hadn't played (most of those i wouldn't had risked none the less). That margin of lost sales alone is enougth to scare devs as far from demos as they can humanly get.

Of the latest 10-20 games you've bought how many you would have bought if you played a demo before? If you say at least one thats a big enougth stastistic for shareholders. The return of investiment is not enought for what it takes for a demo.

[Spawn of Totoro]

Because why waste the extra money on a small development team to make a demo (no, they don't use the same developers, only the build and assests) when it has little to no impact on sales?

Better to spend the extra to improve the game or have someone start on making DLC.

[deathrow_nzl]

Originally posted by Walken on sunshine:

Of the latest 10-20 games you've bought how many you would have bought if you played a demo before? If you say at least one thats a big enougth stastistic for shareholders. The return of investiment is not enought for what it takes for a demo.

Admittedly I would have avoided Elder Scrolls online had a played a demo first and realised its not as good as Skyrim and pretty lame without all the mod's oblivion and Skyrim had..

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

croteam still has demos for their new games. they take them off the store when they served their purpose.

[HLCinSC]

i love demos as much as anybody, but in additiom to what ithers have said, in this modern age of the internet with youtube, gaming sites, twitch, etc... there is less of a need for them. Even within Steam you have reviews, forums, broadcasting, family share, refunds, etc.. to use as tools to help you make the right purchase for you. You'll also put a larger strain on Steam's services if demos were mandatory as you'll go from around 1,000 demos to over 9,000

[Agony]

I honestly believe it's because their is other ways to view a game to see if you may like it. Many websites have game play, screenshots, vidoes etc, and even Twitch streamers give you insight on the game.

[Elgar]

Originally posted by Chewy:

I honestly believe it's because their is other ways to view a game to see if you may like it. Many websites have game play, screenshots, vidoes etc, and even Twitch streamers give you insight on the game.

This.

With Steam Broadcasts, Twitch, Youtube, etc, demos are not needed anymore.

[profile name]

Gonna disagree with most posters, given that Lets Plays, early reviews, and whathot, didnt help situations like No Man's Sky, by which the press, the youtubers, and the publisher,colluded to build this massive hype around the game which tricked a ton of ppl to get it and made sean murray an instant millionare who's happily retired now.

[Tux]

I think youtube videos of game play is more that adequate to get a feel for what the game is like

[xaxazak]

I must be an outlier on this because I hunt demos and I've bought 8 games from demos based on Steam alone, and most of them are obscure and, for me, off-genre.

Just to encourage more demos, here's my #1 not-interested-till-I-tried-the-demo win :
http://store.steampowered.com/app/250110

To make demos more important we need to prioritize demos. It'd be nice if the store page did this.


Getting people to somehow incentivize devs to make demos would be a good thing for games, as it's harder to make a good demo from a bad game than it is to make good passive media about it.

Originally posted by Spawn Of Totoro:

Because why waste the extra money on a small development team to make a demo (no, they don't use the same developers, only the build and assests) when it has little to no impact on sales?

All the demos I quote above, three I can't find easy info on but the rest were made in-house - my guess would be they all were.
Perhaps we play different games? or different platforms?