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Why aren't there more PS4 game demos?


Xel

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Demos, remember when they were a thing? Regardless of the release of FFXV: Episode Duscae, the presence has pretty much lessen since last gen. Do you think developers don't benefit from them anymore? or is it that so they could avoid the risk of losing sales figures from initial impressions?  :hmm: 

 

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People nowadays pay for alphas, betas, and demos.

 

sadly this is true, you just gotta give it to the dumb gamer audience to pay for such things; they set the precedence.

 

They (gaming industry) already shifted their practice to this. 

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Because you can put out pre rendered gameplay and trick people into buying it. If you actually let them play it before release, they may realize it's not as good as advertised.

Imagine how many people would've bought Watch_Dogs had they played a demo beforehand. Instead, they bought all the hype and most ended up being disappointed. But the devs and publishers already got your money, so too bad. Watch_Dogs is just one example. There are plenty of others.

YouTube is a good alternative to demos. But if you want actual real gameplay on YouTube, you have to wait until after the release date for a Let's Play. Because most times, the dev gameplay on YouTube is as scripted as the E3 gameplay. Some people would rather get the game day 1, than wait for that.

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Interestingly enough, the majority of people that play demos are often steered away because of it, resulting in a loss of profit for the publisher. Therefore, there is a lack of demos for the PlayStation®4 platform unless it's a very popular title.

 

Furthermore, there is also a trend within the game industry to release demos several months after it has been released. Destiny is a good example of this.

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Demos were great when I was poor.

 

Now, for all the reasons that were in the video that jrdemr posted, they're not practical.

 

To answer the OP:

 

 Do you think developers don't benefit from them anymore? or is it that so they could avoid the risk of losing sales figures from initial impressions?  :hmm: 

 

Yes. We, the gamers, showed them they're a bad decision.


Becouse they realized that demos werent profitable.

 

Before, they were a part of marketing. Marketing isn't profitable. It's the opposite of profitable.

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It's because they don't want you to know how bad or broken there game is  :devil: , but seriously a poor demo could damage sales where a good demo would only slightly improve sales. I miss demos. If I'm not sure if I should get a game or not, a demo would make my decision a lot easier. 

 

I used to love getting a PlayStation magazine when I was younger. Would spend hours playing the same demos over & over. Plus the magazine had game news & release dates for games which was the main way of getting this info before the internet took off.

Edited by chrisy21
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Demos cost money, if you're a developer and you want a demo on a disc that comes with a magazine you have to pay for it to be on the demo disc, that excluding the extra cost of coding a section for a demo (although that shouldn't be an issue too much) and I doubt any of us know Sonys T&C about having demos up on the PS Store, but it wouldn't surprise me if it costs money.

Demos can harm sales, not in the sense a game is bad; which of course if you play a bad demo you won't buy the game, but in a sense imagine if there were a Rocket League demo where is was a 3v3 exhibition match against bots, a fair few people would just be happy with that content and not feel the need to buy the full version. On the PS1 there was a hockey game which was on a demo disc it allowed two player, a friend and myself played that loads without having to buy the full game.

All in all it comes down to cost as mentioned, games are generally costing more to develop now than they ever did, be it due to inflation; bigger dev teams etc.... but at the same time the base cost of a game has basically stayed the same price for just over a decade now. Game studios have to think where they can make money and save money. One saving is making demos.

I noticed the comment about the gaming industry shifting their practice to make dumb gamers cough up their hard earned money without playing a demo. I'm not sure why but gamers as a whole seem to think they have some sort of consumer entitlement when buying games. There's very few instances in the world where you get to try a product before actually buying it; just because it's a game people shouldn't feel entitled to a demo before buying it. If you go to the cinema you don't get to watch 15 minutes of a film before deciding to pay for it. You don't get a bite of a burger before deciding to buy it. Especially in this age where you can get a good gauge on a game via the many reviews and videos out there.

Edited by DanimalXIII
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  • 2 weeks later...

Demos are pointless in this day and age.  At any point in time you can go watch LIVEstreams on Twitch of a game and figure out if it's for you or not. 

There is online reviews of the games too.

 

Digital distribution set the platform for getting games to people easier, and you didn't need floppy discs or CD's anymore. 

Edited by DARKB1KE
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