Game Dev Claims Demos Hurt Game Sales

[EHKOS]

I've bought a few indie games just because of the demos. Dungeon Defenders is the only one I can think of where the demo made me not want to buy it. Well, and Heavy Rain, but Heavy Rain already looked like crap and I just played the demo to make sure it was crap.

Yeah, I remember I used to buy Playstation Magazine for the PSUnderground discs. And I bought some games because of the demos. Once even a rare Japanese import. I miss Jampaks.

OT: It's prolly because the game sucks, or wasn't what the player was expecting. I know I've had both experiences, both good and bad. For instance, I could finally decide whether I should buy Ni No Kuni if I had a demo for it :/

I really miss PS Underground.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

Well, I do have to grant him his point- I would never have preordered Brink if there had been a demo for it.

Though I'll never, ever buy another Splash Damage title again, because Brink was dog shit on ice. So he's right, they got that sale from me thanks to not having a demo- they just won't ever get another.

 

[RandV80]

I don't know where I'd fall on the statistical playing field of "average consumer," but I'll still say this: I've been sold by game demos far more often than I've been turned away by them. I could probably count games I decided not to buy because of their demo on one hand. More often I decide not to buy games because they don't have a demo and I'm borderline about the game's description (trailers mean nothing to me unless they're featuring gameplay heavily enough to really get a feel for what PLAYING the game is like as opposed to watching pretty cutscenes).

Heck, I often just want a demo of a PC game to check how well it runs on my rig before I risk buying something I can't actually play with higher than 5 FPS.

But again, I dunno if my relationship with demos is anything like the norm, so meh.

Pretty much the same here, though my taste in gaming tends to be a little more obscure as I usually like turn based strategies or RPG's with a more old school flavour. If it falls under one of these category I'm perfectly fine playing a 7/10 game, but they never come with the same amount of hype or press a more mainstream game does so it's good to have a demo to try out. One concept that's completely foreign to me here is that the demo could give me enough of a fill that I wouldn't care to buy the main game.

But at the same time while I may buy a game after playing the demo I don't necessarily always use a demo before buying the game. While I appreciate when a developer gives me one I can't honestly say from my perspective if it's really that beneficial to them or not. In some cases yes, but others not really.

 

[Bad Jim]

I'm pretty certain that adding a demo only hurts your game if your game sucks.

Two points

1) They've got empirical data. You can spout theory all you like, but the real world data says otherwise.

2) Whether a game or demo is good or not is highly subjective. No matter how good a demo is, some people will decide the game is not for them.

 

[Vegosiux]

1) They've got empirical data. You can spout theory all you like, but the real world data says otherwise.

2) Whether a game or demo is good or not is highly subjective. No matter how good a demo is, some people will decide the game is not for them.

Well, not that I care, let people waste their money on substandard products if they want to, but the moment I get blamed for not buying a game because the demo relayed it was not a good purchase is the moment I say "Hey you devs, why the fuck are you feeling so entitled to my money? SCREW YOU!"

Empirical data only suggests that people are idiots who will buy anything without thinking.

 

[Epona]

I'm pretty certain that adding a demo only hurts your game if your game sucks.

Two points

1) They've got empirical data. You can spout theory all you like, but the real world data says otherwise.

2) Whether a game or demo is good or not is highly subjective. No matter how good a demo is, some people will decide the game is not for them.

Who's to say their data isn't cherry picked? Like AAA games that don't need demos and sell out of pre-orders compared to lesser known games that do need to demos to raise awareness.

As for me, it was the demo that convinced me to buy Fire Emblem Awakening. I had a FE game on the DS but didn't like it. If there hadn't been a demo for this one, I wouldn't have even considered it.

 

[Nazulu]

I use demo's so I can find out what the game play will be roughly like. If it's terrible, then you don't deserve to make money. However, I believe you should research before you buy. Even if I didn't like the demo, I still wait for more info, and I'm sure many others do as well, and then spread the popularity.

Does he really have the numbers? Starcraft had a 4 level demo and I fell in love with it. We all know that one sold a lot. What's the difference with new demo's?

 

[Bad Jim]

Who's to say their data isn't cherry picked?

This is data that AAA companies are basing business decisions on. So they probably hired a few statisticians to double check it and make sure it wasn't BS before they started acting on it.

Like AAA games that don't need demos and sell out of pre-orders compared to lesser known games that do need to demos to raise awareness.

Well that's what the guy said. A demo is better than nothing, but it hurts sales if you have a big marketing campaign. But he is of course discussing AAA games, which need the marketing campaign.

 

[Vykrel]

...maybe if the demo was actually fun, people would buy the game.

there are plenty of demos that convinced me to buy the games. a good example would be the demo for Red Faction: Guerrilla. they chose the perfect part to put in the demo, and i think it is safe to say that a lot of people bought the game because of how fun the demo was. i know i did.

other demos that convinced me to buy a game: Bulletstorm, Rayman Origins, FEAR 2, Splinter Cell: Conviction, Just Cause 2, Split/Second, Dante's Inferno, and some others.

demos are a big factor in convincing people to buy games. its up to the developers to not release a shitty demo that will turn them off of the game.

 

[wulf3n]

So basically he's saying he needs to trick 50% of the intended audience into buying the game, because when they play it they'll realise it's not worth buying...yep, that's a great way of instilling customer loyalty :|

 

[Prosis]

I have never been convinced by a demo to buy a game, but I have been convinced by a demo to not buy a game. If it fails to impress me in what is essentially a highlight, then it really can only go downhill from that point on. But there really isn't a way to gauge if a game that has a great demo can hold up across a whole playthrough, so I turn to other more reliable sources. Just my two cents.

Also Extra Credits did an episode on this a while back: http://www.penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/demo-daze [http://www.penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/demo-daze]

Pretty much this. Watch the episode.

Demos literally hurt sales. In order for a demo to be profitable, it must be a good demo, and the game must be even better than the demo. Any other combination (bad demo, good game, good demo, bad game, good demo, mediocre game, etc.) will hurt sales.

Just Cause 2. That is the only time that a demo has convinced me to buy a game. And even then, it only convinced me to shell out 2 bucks for it. For me, video game reviews were convincing, but nowadays, the sheer number of Let's Plays and whatnot are my main deciding factor for whether or not to buy a game.

Furthermore, demos are expensive to develop. They have to create a segment of the game containing the full working engine, yet only contains a level or two, and they have to figure out a means of distribution. Coupled with data regarding demos, it just isn't worth it.

 

[Epona]

I use demo's so I can find out what the game play will be roughly like. If it's terrible, then you don't deserve to make money. However, I believe you should research before you buy. Even if I didn't like the demo, I still wait for more info, and I'm sure many others do as well, and then spread the popularity.

Does he really have the numbers? Starcraft had a 4 level demo and I fell in love with it. We all know that one sold a lot. What's the difference with new demo's?

Maybe the difference with new demos is that developers now have the attitude that they are doing YOU a favor if they release a demo instead of designing the demo as a promotional tool.

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

That depends on the game and the ability of the demo to show what the game is about. More often than not, a demo convinced me to buy the game. I know I couldn't wait to buy Just Cause 2 after I played the demo. Same thing with Mafia 2. Also, didn't that leaked demo of Deus Ex: HR boost sales? I think I read about that. These days I find myself refusing to buy the game if I don't know what I'm buying. And since I don't trust the reviewers, and everyone seem to be making mediocre shit and demanding more and more money for that shit, I'd say you're gonna have to start making a lot more demos to attract me as a potential buyer.

Dammit, ninja'd about Deus Ex.

That leak pretty much killed most of the criticism directed at the game compared to the press releases just before it.

I can kinda see what the idiot guy is trying to say, especially with more indie titles, but with the current state of gaming journalism what would you rather trust?

Your own experience with a demo?

Or this guy?

 

[Blackdoom]

I think the issue is more if the demo shows how poor the gameplay is then that will hurt sales. If a game is bad and the demo shows it is bad then I am not going to buy it because I know that the game is bad.

In all honesty I don't think that demos are what hurt game sales but the actual quality of the game being revealed to the player is more what hurts it.

Remember back in the days of the PS1 where you would get discs filled with demos for various games which you could try out a section of the game with most of the abilities that you could use in the proper game. I bought plenty of games because of those because I found games which I probably wouldn't have thought of getting.

 

[Nazulu]

I use demo's so I can find out what the game play will be roughly like. If it's terrible, then you don't deserve to make money. However, I believe you should research before you buy. Even if I didn't like the demo, I still wait for more info, and I'm sure many others do as well, and then spread the popularity.

Does he really have the numbers? Starcraft had a 4 level demo and I fell in love with it. We all know that one sold a lot. What's the difference with new demo's?

Maybe the difference with new demos is that developers now have the attitude that they are doing YOU a favor if they release a demo instead of designing the demo as a promotional tool.

Do you think they are doing me a favour?

I thought they would be happy to show off their work. I keep watching new video's of games in the making, and all of them say they are excited to show us how it's going so far.

 

[GeneralFungi]

If a demo is enough to sate your curiosity enough that you don't want to play it more, it's not the demo that's the problem.

This is completely true. More then true.A good demo should sink it's teeth into you. Make you wonder what more the game has to offer. But it seems like a lot of demos give you enough of the game that you decide you don't really want to invest more time into it. Good demos that get players hooked would be just what developers need to rake in the sales.

 

[Vegosiux]

This is data that AAA companies are basing business decisions on. So they probably hired a few statisticians to double check it and make sure it wasn't BS before they started acting on it.

Oh, come on, how many times did you ask yourself if the tenth dentist recommends all other brands of toothpaste?

 

[tautologico]

I love how everyone focuses on this one comment section of the guy's 20 minute speech. How about the part where he explains that 3D gaming is a "fad" that "rich geeks" will have, but it's not something people want on a daily basis? Or how about the part where he explains to companies to stop nickle-and-dimeing customers and just sell a full, enjoyable product at a single price? Or, another great part that he explains, is how Free-2-Play is not the way to get customers because of the skepticism by customers based on their mental perception of not receiving a full product?



P.S. However, to talk slightly about this guy's "demo opinion", I'll state that I was considering buying the PC version of Crysis 3 until I tried the Open Beta/Demo....now, I've tried it and have moved on to better things without purchasing.

Par for the course here in these forums (yeah, I know, it's on the Internet as a whole). People jump to conclusions and then come ***** and moan in the forums, without making any effort to know more about what the guy was actually saying, let alone what else he said. It's funny because if the Escapist had decided to make an article about his stance on free-to-play (as the Penny Arcade Report did), a lot of people here would be praising him to high heavens.

 

[Something Amyss]

Games that focus on gameplay could very well be hurt by demos because...gameplay is gameplay. You play it, you've already experienced what it has to offer, and then that's it.

That's why the CoD series sells so poorly.

I'm pretty certain that adding a demo only hurts your game if your game sucks.

When I go to the bookstore, I read the first chapter or so (or more, depending) before I buy, and if I don't like what I see, then I don't buy the book. My attitude with games is pretty much the same.

Yeah, this is one of the things I love about Kindle (especially since the best bookstore in my area had to close after a fire). I can sample any book's beginning for free. This probably accounts for the increase in both reading time AND purchases.

Anyway, I like how he tries to make it out to be a 1:1 issue when factors could simply include making more interesting demos.

He uses a chart that shows sales figures of games with trailers against games with trailers and demo's.
The Games with only trailers sell twice as much as the one's with the demo's and trailers.

I find it interesting that you make demo a possessive but trailer a plural. Not an attack or grammar Naziing, but...Weird.