Demos may be a good way to boost your standing among impatient fans - or at least, forestall their ire - but they don't always equate to strong sales. Quite the contrary, claims games academic and developer Jesse Schell.
Speaking at the DICE 2013 summit, Schell shared EEDAR data which shows that games that have trailers but not demos massively outperform those that get both. "Wait - we spent all this money making a demo and getting it out there, and it cut our sales in half?" he said. "Yes that's exactly what happens to you.
"The thing is with no demo, you've gotta buy it if you want to try it. These plans make a big difference."
All fairly common sense stuff, I'm sure you'll agree, but it's interesting/troubling to see that there are real ramifications in terms of sales. Schell declined to name the games under discussion, presumably wary of publisher wrath.
Thought for the thread: could publishers offer more in the way of cross-over between demos and final games, perhaps allowing you to transfer XP or unlocks between the two?
Ta, PCgamesN.
27 comments so far...
Windowlicker79 on 11 Feb '13 said:
The worst demo I ever played was for Dead Space (1 or 2, I can't remember which). It was so dull and lacking in anything eventful that it put me right off. As a direct result I've never played any of the series.
The best demo I ever played was for Deus Ex: Invisible War on the original Xbox. It was made up of different parts of the game but cobbled together in a different arrangement to how it appeared in the game, with doors leading to completely different rooms and altered storyline. It got me hooked and didn't give any of the story away. I went out and bought it immediately.
FishyGinger on 11 Feb '13 said:
Cunning asks about it then there's a story...and Jesse Schell is an anagram of CunningSmile....I see what's going on here.
I don't like the thought that he's saying if your game is rubbish, don't release a demo just do a good trailer and the mugs will buy it. I know he's talking purely sales but I can't help but get that message. If the demo is good and the game is good it will (hopefully) sell.
schwepterbrowser on 11 Feb '13 said:
I don't think it's a case of people thinking "all right, I've tried that game. That was OK. All right, I'm done." I think the problem is most demos suck; whether they're overwhelming because you're dumped straight into a late game section, rather than being eased into the mechanics, or the story's seemingly disjointed and confusing because you haven't experienced it as a whole, or because it's too short/holds elements back and you can't fully get to grips with. They can be too long as well; several RPG demos have put me off the game because they just drag on and on and on and on.
I really can't remember the last demo I enjoyed and wanted the game as a result. I've been put off many a game by them, on the other hand, from the big (Mass Effect 3) to the small (Binary Domain) and everything in between (Kingdoms of Amalur). I think a much easier and more cost effective way is to just let people play from the start like XBLA trials do, I could name several trials that prompted me to purchase an XBLA game, but as I said no demos that have prompted retail purchases.
CunningSmile on 11 Feb '13 said:
A few weeks back I started a thread arguing that demos had past their sell by dates and either needed phasing out all together or drastically overhauling.
By this stage in gaming we've got the actual mechanics pretty good, and usually fairly uniform across the AAA titles. The selling edge now comes from plot, character and story all of which convey really badly in 10 minutes randomly pulled from the beginning of a game. It's almost inevitable that we now play a demo and say "meh seen it before," because what can they really show that's new? Spec Ops and Enslaved are two of my favorite games of the last few years and thanks to their demos I didn't buy either until they dropped in price and both are now viewed as flops by their developers. Their strengths were in areas that a demo can't show, and so they came across as a substandard platformer and a generic army shooter.
I think it's a real pity that more developers didn't follow the Dead Rising Case Zero example and release an XBLA game as a demo. Two hours of stand alone game play told me I wasn't going to enjoy the main game as I found it repetative, but I don't resent the 400 points I spend because I got two hours of fairly enjoyable game out of it. If I had decided to buy DR2 I wouldn't have had any of the campaign ruined for me, and would have had XP to carry across and a protagonist I'd already gotten to know.
Plamsa wing on 11 Feb '13 said:
Why not just make a good demo then? It's a simple solution and it seems most demos I've played are half-arsed at best. Demos also have the porblem of trying to do everything at once, instead of that, why not show off one or two gameplay mechanics?
I try not to bother with trailers these days, like movie trailers they seem to show all the best parts. I made that mistake with the Brown Lantern, I won't make it again. It's either that, or a gameplay trailer.
Unless of course you're worried that the game is going to be completely crap.
FishyGinger on 11 Feb '13 said:
Binary Domain demo actually did get me to buy the game, I wouldn't have bothered otherwise
Grummy on 11 Feb '13 said:
I've been saying it all along, rather than just demos, use the engine and some assets cut from the game and put together something you can release on Live as a stand alone mini version of the main game. Do it right, and you will earn some nice extra money from content you had originally cut, and will make people more hyped for your game in the process.
On the other hand, put out a crap demo and people will give it a resounding 'meh'.
SidTheSloth on 11 Feb '13 said:
Enslaved is a great example actually, i bought it and thoroughly enjoyed it - but hated the demo...? I hated the same level in the game itself as it happens (it was the very first one too as i recall), and it felt at odds with a lot of the rest of the game - surely someone involved with making the thing could've picked up on that?
Binary Domain is another one... The previews on OXM got me interested, but the demo turned me off so much it's untrue. I kept and still now, keep hearing good things about it but having returned to the demo i can still not see anything remotely worth shelling out the £8 it costs new for, but i'm sure all you folks can't be wrong!
Maybe it is more to do with the full price thing? As like has been said, the arcade doesn't struggle in the same way. Would as many people have bought the walking dead if it'd launched all five episodes at once/in one pack based on a single demo?
Johnbhoy69 on 11 Feb '13 said:
Interesting theory, I played the resident evil 6 demo (Yes. this again) and as much as I thought it sucked...which it did I still bought the game...mainly because I had pre-ordered it and the money had already been taken from my account.
The demo of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is one example of a game I will not be buying for the reason this article states...Ive tried it and also I really didnt like it and I wont buy it until its a more suitable price...which I see happening in a mere few months after release
I was waiting to try both the new Devil May Cry and Revengeance before I decided which one to get and Its safe to say Ill be buying Devil May Cry based on its demo as Revengeance pales in comparison.
fracturedrich on 11 Feb '13 said:
I bought dmc after playing the demo and i was not going to bother,the demo left me wanting more and thats a first,and xcom but i was going to buy that anyway.
GossipHound on 11 Feb '13 said:
I like the idea of having unlocks or other transferable content from demo's to the complete game, even cross company/publisher games - Kingdoms of Amalur springs to mind. At first I only played Kingdoms to get the armour for Mass Effect 3 but liked the demo enough to consider getting it at some point. Avatar items would be cool as well for completing demo's or taking part in a beta (e.g. Halo Reach). Incentives like that could encourage more sales.
OXM ETboy on 11 Feb '13 said:
One of our classier Avatar pic and name combos there, GossipHound. Good work!
GossipHound on 11 Feb '13 said:
Thank you kind sir! You've made my day
Bezza89 on 11 Feb '13 said:
Very vague this guy isn't he? Where did he get the data from, which games? How? What were the reviews like for these games - did they contradict the good review/poor sales therefore the problem is the demo and not because the game wasn't advertised?
I'd have never have bought Arkham Asylum or City if not for the first games demo, and I've not bought some other games based off the gameplay being a bit shit (if it's going to be different in the main game why am I not getting a teaser of this? Why release the demo it if it's changed completely?). I've never gone; ''oh that was adequate, screw you though you're not having my money.'' Well, I may have said that once
You get my point, this guy is after a headline after some nonesense he's spouted, in an unrelated note his game sells half the amount the expectations were and it has a demo. No?
battfink83 on 11 Feb '13 said:
"Because when you put the demo out - people have seen the trailer, and they're like 'that's cool!' and they made a plan. 'I've got to try that game.' And then when they played the demo - 'all right, I've tried that game. That was OK. All right, I'm done.
"The thing is with no demo, you've gotta buy it if you want to try it.
here's an idea, try making a good game, then the demo will be good!
all games should have a demo of some sorts, basically saying that you need to take money from people who want to try your game is shocking.
i wish aliens CM had a demo, regretting spending a penny on it, its terrible, its so bad ive given it to my brother......
Drainwater on 12 Feb '13 said:
I made myself try the Dragon's Dogma demo and despite being underwhelmed by the gameplay, other videos still made me want it. So I went and bought it a few days after release and...was underwhelmed by the gameplay. Logically I have to see the argument in this article against releasing demos but there's a reason those game sales get cut in half. People get to try the game and find out it sucks. I can see why they shouldn't do demos for their sake, but do we really want our ignorance of the gameplay exploited?
And I agree with Cunning that something should carry over from the demo to the main game. Unlike him, Case Zero made me want to play Dead Rising 2. It didn't feel repetitive to me (but then I'm the guy who still likes to fire up old school Mario Bros. every now and then...the epitome of platforming repetitiveness) and I loved the idea of getting a kind of "head start" on the game. Plus it let me know what I was in for, like a good demo should.
Metalrodent on 12 Feb '13 said:
One of the best demo's I ever played was FEAR 2; it took some rooms from the best bits of the game and spliced them together (literaly by joining in game doors), it wasn't until i got the actual game that I realised that they some areas weren't connected and actually were hours apart in the game.
(also i seem to remember there being a death animation in the demo that never made it into the game, made me sad that did xD)
baggieal on 12 Feb '13 said:
I like demos, namely when youre bored and youve played the majority of your games to death, coming across a demo for a game that you want to try or are intrigued by is always a good way to kill some time!
Regardless though of whether the demos good or bad, if i want to buy the game ill still buy it, Mass Effect 3 could have been the worst demo in the world and i still would have brought the full game
Obviously its different for some people, if they play a bad demo then they just wont buy the game but it doesnt affect me too much, im either grateful that ive had the chance to play a little bit of a game i really want early, or ive had the chance to try something new that i normally wouldnt buy, had a few games where i had no intention of buying the game but tried the demo because i was bored and ended up really enjoying it!
Interesting on the fact how it can cut sales in half though, obviously would affect some games but i think the bigger games would always sell well regardless of how good / bad a demo is, hope this doesnt cause some companys to stop releasing them as its always nice to play bits of a game for free and test the waters to see if you like the game or not.
Windowlicker79 on 12 Feb '13 said:
Another demo that worked for me was Trials HD. I bought the game after playing the demo continuously and have been a huge Trials fan ever since.
mistergrimm on 12 Feb '13 said:
Maybe rather than just throwing out a few scenes from the game for a demo they should take a leaf out of the TV book and design them more like a 'pilot'. A brief game released for like £2.50 or something that introduces you to the characters, mechanics and themes but has it's own closed story arc. The devs can make a bit of money back to offset the sales drop for the main game from people who don't like it, and it's not too much to be a risk for a consumer. Win win.
Metalrodent on 12 Feb '13 said:
while that is quite a good idea charging for it is not, people (including me) won't want to pay for what is essentially a tech demo. But asides from that i think it would work well, developers would grumble about extra work but hell I wouldn't mind if it was only 15mins long, if it makes me buy the game then its a win for them
Uncle dozens on 12 Feb '13 said:
As an alternative to releasing demo's how about publishing quality gameplay videos instead?
When Xcom was due for release the developers uploaded a 45 minute video onto YouTube showing 3 people playing through one of the missions. It revealed the basic gameplay dynamics, gave us a chance to see a few enemy type, squad weapons, and how unforgiving the game was. All without ruining the game.
On the back of that video I pre-ordered the game.
To be fair they also released a two level demo which I downloaded and played a couple of times confirming how happy I was with the game.
A shit demo will only ruin shit games. If publishers can't produce a decent demo then the game is likely to be just as poor. I am hesitant to invest my £37.99 in any game so I always want to know I am getting exactly what I expect. Perhaps they ought to worry more about the content they churn out rather than the bottom line all the time.
Kenneth Bruton on 13 Feb '13 said:
"Just putting the game out there" is a sure-fire recipe for problems, especially in the possible light of a "no used games" console. How are you going to see if the game is a good fit for your $60? A lot of people won't keep their games once it is determined that they hate them...I think demo games are a good idea, that needs to stay.
CunningSmile on 13 Feb '13 said:
Doesn't always work. As several of us have said above we've been put off buying games because of the demo and then picked them up later at a lower price and absolutely loved them. Two of my favorite games in fact, which are now getting strong support online but were flops at release.
mistergrimm on 13 Feb '13 said:
If they were designed as essentially standalone games, then paying the price of a pint of lager seems pretty reasonable - let alone that it tells you whether or not you'll be wasting £40-50. Plus, if they were released a few months beforehand, the developers could take audience feedback and make vital improvements to the main game.
SidTheSloth on 14 Feb '13 said:
That's another great example, i was hooked on the demo despite it being incredibly simple! They managed to show everything that the game was about in a minute which not a lot of other games have the fortune to be able too... Weirdly i didn't buy the game off the back of it, but that's only as the sequel was imminent! I'd buy HD too if there weren't already too many games i want to play.
MasterChiefJ117 on 15 Feb '13 said:
Now I know why there was no Halo4 Beta