mag

Is it me, or do companies seem to release demos for games a lot less often these days? A lot of PC games come out with no demo at all. And if there is a demo it might not be released for several months after the game itself. I find this trend very disturbing. Games can cost quite a bit of money. I like to know what I'm getting before I just fork over $50. Especially with the instability of PC games. I want to know that it can run on my machine before I buy it. I hope this isn't something that continues. I may fall back into the habit of only buying games that are sequels to games I know I like. So what do the rest of you think? Am I just going nuts for no good reason, or is this a valid concern?

mag

Erkki

How long time period are you talking about? Maybe it's a post-holiday-season thing. Developers don't have time to make a demo when they have to release the game before Christmas.

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mag

I don't mean since Christmas. I'm talking about the past few years. I can't quite place exactly when it started, but within the past year I've noted a number of games that I thought should have had demos that didn't. I'm well aware that the vast majority of PC games do still make demos prior to release. But there have been big name PC games like Grand Theft Auto that didn't have any. I'm more concerned that this is a trend that will catch on than I am about any demos that may be available currently.

mag

Jake

No offense, but it seems like GTA is about the worst example possible for "PC games that need a demo." If you want to see the gameplay, you can go play the PS2 version that has been out for a year. If you want to know if its good... well, it says "Grand Theft Auto" in the title, so that's probably settled. If that doesn't convince you, see two sentences ago. If you're concerned that it won't run on your computer, there are countless reviews of GTA:VC that list system specs, and if those don't suffice, surely someone in a web forum has a similar set up to you and bought the game already because they were sold on the other two reasons above, and can tell you.

It seems like companies release demos after the fact now because they realized it was just putting a delay on the time it takes to release a game if the team has to stop for a week or two and focus on debugging and testing and streamlining the demo, and on top of that it really doesn't change enough minds to worry about. Also, when demos come out later rather than earlier, companies can generate another wave of advertising pushing on gaming news sites and magazines a month or two after the game is released.

Also, plenty of demos still come out... it's not the necessity that it once was, but there have been multiple demos just in the past couple weeks for big titles (like Prince of Persia). Sure, there aren't as many as before, but its not like they've disappeared. Publishers and developers have probably just re-assessed their importance. I can see where they're coming from. I've rarely bought a commercial game based on the demo (shareware is another story). I almost always use demos just to get a very free taste of a game I'd like to buy once I get a little extra money... you know, to get me slightly more excited about spending money I was already planning on spending (like I did with the Beyond Good and Evil demo)?...

As usual I'm just rambling. Ahem.

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Intrepid Homoludens

You're going nuts.

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Are you talking about demos for only the games you personally are interested in, or demos in general? If it's the latter, then it seems you haven't been checking sites like Gamer's Hell or Blue's News regularly. There's practically at least one or two demos coming out every day or every other day. Granted, they may not be of games you're interested in, but they do disprove your imaginings.

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guybrush_guy

what ever happend to the demos on adventuregamers. they had a bunch. i remember they had ace ventura and a bunch of other games. they should start hosting but new games take up a lot of band with.

mag

Perhaps. I used that one because it's one I just recently checked to see if there was a demo. So it's fresh in my mind. But the same thing has happened to me a number of times over the past year. Kind of frustrating.

Yes, but the system specs lie with hideous lying lies of lyingness. After the Freedom Force Incident, I don't like buying any PC game unless I know for a fact that it runs on my machine. Sure, I could compare it to somebody else with a similar computer, but that wouldn't take into account other critical factors such as computer gremlins.

I guess I can buy that, but how much does it really cost to put out a demo? I'm certainly no computer genius here, so I may be grossly oversimplifying this. But isn't making a demo just cutting out a hunk of the game you've already made and sticking a screen at the end that says "Buy Our Game?" I would think that if you're close to finishing a game, putting out a demo shouldn't slow you down too much.

That's a good point. I mean, I'm well aware that there are still a LOT of demos being released. I was more concerned with what seemed to me to be the increasing frequency of games without demos. But I suppose it could just seem that way to me if the games that lack demos happen to be the games for which I'm seeking a demo. I guess I'll just have to watch and see how it goes.

Yeah, I think I remember those. That would be pretty cool. But I guess there's a bunch of other places you could get those demos too. So I don't know if Adventure Gamers putting demos up again would really change much aside from maybe just providing a comprehensive site with just adventure demos.

mag