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[KàIRóS]

I applaud SE's pro-consumer decision of releasing demos of all their games but at the same time I understand the risk of doing so, gamers nowadays are extremely nitpicky and selective on what they purchase, hell even here at GAF I've seen people saying they won't buy Valkyrie Elysium just because they don't like the running animation, which is crasy to me BTW.

But that also raises the question, should other companies follow SE's footsteps and make the pro-consumer decision of releasing game demos? or should they not?

Do you guys think SE is losing sales by releasing Demos? or the contrary?

 

[Jennings]

Yes. Demos save me more money than they cost me and I'd like to keep saving money on bad games.

 

[AJUMP23]

Square Enix did not invent the game demo.

 

[midasmulligan]

absolutely, particularly as games become more expensive and company's pump out more and more thinly disguised early access games. It's a big ask for people to put up money without at least a test of the game's state and execution.

 

[Captain Toad]

Square Enix did not invent the game demo.

No, but look how they do them.

Just about every game has a "demo" release before the game. But, these demos are really just the first portion of the final game and your save carries over. And they aren't insignificant portions, often several hours. Dragon Quest XI gave you the first 10 hours.

And they've done this with almost every release since Switch launched.

 

[Gambit2483]

Why is this not a poll?

And yes, he'll yes they should make more demos available. That said, the Switch eshop has a surprisingly huge amount of demos on it you guys may want to check out.

 

[AJUMP23]

No, but look how they do them.

Just about every game has a "demo" release before the game. But, these demos are really just the first portion of the final game and your save carries over. And they aren't insignificant portions, often several hours. Dragon Quest XI gave you the first 10 hours.

And they've done this with almost every release since Switch launched.

Well since you put it that way..... Square is not the be all to end all.

I still miss Square Pictures, they need to make more bad movies and bankrupt their companies.

 

[RoboFu]

Yeah I wouldn’t hold my breath. With services like game pass springing up all over there are no more need for demos.

 

[adamsapple]

The massive Valkyrie Elysium demo was great for me to realize I don't want to spend full price on the game at all.

So, yeah, more demos please.

 

[SmokedMeat]

From the looks of things they only release demos for games they feel need a push. The bigger games don’t get a demo.

Demos are a good thing though. They save me money more often than not

 

[Fbh]

Yes. I don't know why any user would be opposed to more demos.

I get why most publishers don't do them though. I was interested in both Diofield Chronicle and Valkyrie Elysium but have decided to skip both of them after trying their respective demos.

Square Enix did not invent the game demo.

No, but these days they are one of the few big publishers consistently releasing free demos for most of their games.

 

[Skifi28]

It's something that should be mandatory, even more so on PC. So many times I've felt like a filthy pirate just because I want to see how a game runs on my rig before parting with my eddies.

 

[AJUMP23]

No, but these days they are one of the few big publishers consistently releasing free demos for most of their games.

I prefer Paid demos.

 

[Fbh]

I prefer Paid demos.

Then you must be all over Ps+ Premium

 

[AJUMP23]

Then you must be all over Ps+ Premium

I am not. GAMEPASS 4 LIFE!

 

[Gambit2483]

Yeah I wouldn’t hold my breath. With services like game pass springing up all over there are no more need for demos.

Maybe demos don't make sense on Xbox but people still actually buy games on Sony and Nintendos platforms so yes, they make sense everywhere except Xbox

 

[Impotaku]

Yup there should always be demos so we can weed out absolute pieces of shitty garbage such as balan, that was the perfect instance where a demo saved so many from buying that garbage game.

 

[GymWolf]

In an ideal world, every game should have a demo.

 

[Knightime_X]

All games should have demos.
Many times I won't give a game the time of day if I can't get a hands-on experience.
SOMETIMES, video or someone streaming the game will suffice.

Some of my all-time favorites started as a rental or demo that I would have not played otherwise.

 

[remember_spinal]

Memba when everyone was outraged that sony was gonna “force” devs to make demos of all their games?

 

[adamsapple]

Memba when everyone was outraged that sony was gonna “force” devs to make demos of all their games?

Yes, i memba because it was supposedly locked behind the highest paywall.

Ideally all games should have demos accessible to everyone before release.

 

[GymWolf]

Memba when everyone was outraged that sony was gonna “force” devs to make demos of all their games?

Was that even real? Because we had an amount of zero demos from sony studios...i mean we had 8 hours spidey morales for 60 euros but that was just jimbo gently preparing our asses for the nextgen tax etc.

 

[DonkeyPunchJr]

Yes. Demos save me more money than they cost me and I'd like to keep saving money on bad games.

Lol yeah I was thinking the same thing. Definitely have played a few demos that killed my interest and saved me some money (Triangle Strategy and the last couple Tokyo RPG Factory games to be specific).

I will say it’s cool when a demo lets you save your progress and carry forward to the full game.

 

[adamsapple]

Yes. Demos save me more money than they cost me and I'd like to keep saving money on bad games.

Looking forward to the 2 hour Star Ocean demo for this reason alone.

 

[remember_spinal]

Yes, i memba because it was supposedly locked behind the highest paywall.

Ideally all games should have demos accessible to everyone before release.

Naw that wasn’t the original outrage. The original outrage was “poor devs, especially indie devs taht are being forced to make demos for 4 hour games” then it moved onto complaints about how its locked to the “highest tier”

 

[adamsapple]

Naw that wasn’t the original outrage. The original outrage was “poor devs, especially indie devs taht are being forced to make demos for 4 hour games” then it moved onto complaints about how its locked to the “highest tier”

Once you've sorted out the quoting, look up my later/newer posts in the thread you're getting that from

I'm still gonna stand on that demos/trials shouldn't be locked behind paywalls, or the highest tier paywalls for that matter.

 

[saintjules]

I think making more of an effort by releasing demos to your games is 50/50 to your sales I guess in some ways.

Feels like Catch 22. On the one hand, it would entice people if they like the demo to actually consider the purchase, whether it's at full price or at a sale. The flipside is that they don't like the demo and avoid buying it altogether.

 

[wvnative]

Of course, but most publishers won't because they know their games are shit and it'd tank sales.

 

[Hugare]

From the dev/publisher pint of view, demos arent worthwhile.

You spend dev time making a demo that in return, can influence people to not buy your game.

For the consumer, its great. For the publisher, not so much.

 

[lovetalkgames]

There’s a certain level of consumer risk I believe should always be present when purchasing games. It offsets some responsibility onto the buyer because at this point, we should be doing some degree of research before committing our money. It’s a rare aspect of consumer software I don’t think should fall solely on the studio/publishers.

 

[Roxkis_ii]

I would say Square Enix got a sell off of me by having a demo. I would have likely still brought the game, but now I'm day one with it.

Competent demo = sales

 

[Punished Miku]

Pretty much just Japanese companies, and indies as far as I can tell. SQEX, Nintendo, Team Ninja. You get a fair bit from small indie devs too.

 

[KingT731]

I'm noticing the demos the way theyre doing them generating a lot of positive word of mouth...even for games that didn't do too hot in the sales like Neo:TWEWY

 

[bentanchorbolt]

Yes.

Demo discs on the PSOne was an amazing way to try out games.

 

[German Hops]

Yes, and they should also bring back demo discs.

 

[mrcroket]

In a world of remakes, remades, remasters, sequels and whatever-like there is no need of demos