Game Demos Kill Sales?

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I think what this developer was trying to say is that "game demos kill sales of CRAPPY games." I can't speak for everyone but I have never played an awesome demo and then decided against buying the game. In fact, it makes me leery of companies that won't put out a demo.

He offers a chart of the "Hype Curve" of marketing a game, which contains data points with disturbing labels such as "Peak of Inflated Expectations" and "Trough of Disillusionment," and offers the following personal perspective on how this works, at least in the case of his game: "You mean we spent all this money making a demo and getting it out there, and it cut our sales in half?," he asks himself, before answering: "Yes, that’s exactly what happened to you."
 
I have to agree with you Steve. If the demo sucks, so will the game most likely.
There have been several demos I have played over the years and ended up buying the full version.
 
Dead Space 1 demo was terrible. I almost skipped it because of it. There are just bad demos to great games. There are good demos for terrible games also. Braid is another one that comes to mind where the demo sucks compared to the full game.
 
Word of mouth has been holding more weight than demo's (when a game actually has a demo on PC which is rare as hell these days) lately for me.

I left Dead Space in the dust when I heard what a craptacular port it was. Same with Borderlands.
 
Well, from a technical standpoint I think it is like any other type of advertising ... you have to decide whether the ROI is better to code a demo or to put that money into other forms of advertising ...

the type of game could also affect the value of the demo ... an action title might have some wiz bang events at the start to engage the player in a demo while a strategy game might not come into its own until far into the game play (and well beyond what a demo would permit) ... also, how could you do a demo of a game like ElderScrolls (where the game is totally open and you could only do a time based demo)

Personally I would like to see more interactive playing events rather than a demo, or open beta access to more games, but that is just me :)
 
"Ushering in a new era of people buying things to find out what they are"

That's not me. I generally wait several weeks before looking into new games.
 
Yes. Youre right. What he was trying to say was that demos kill sales of shitty games. Well, gee wiz, go figure. Of course they do. Who wants to waste their money buying a game they found bad. Common sense really. I suppose in the developer world, demos might be a double edged sword.

The same might be said for anything though right? You could say trailers for movies kill movie sales if it makes the movie look terrible. Most people usually decide if they will see a movie based on the trailer right? Same thing really.
 
No demo, no purchase. That is my rule. If a developer doesn't believe in their product enough to let me try it first, I don't believe in plunking down non refundable money. It wouldn't be an issue if I could demand my money back. But yes this essentially says a demo will kill sales of a shitty game.
 
And just to point out there, the reverse side of that logic must also be true right?

Demos boost and promote sales of good games. Id bet good games released see more sales having demos released.
 
Why make a demo, when they can simply offer a gold version of some item in the game if you pre-order now! Why make a demo, when you can simply give people $5 off if they pre-order now! Why make a demo, when you can hype the shit out of the game with epic trailers on broadcast television that would make an Amish guy want to buy the game by lining up before midnight outside of a store waiting for it to open?
 
In a way, a demo can be a problem. Since you don't charge for them, you are relying on them to sell your game, but you still need to put some amount of work into the demo itself. And a demo can really sell a game, if done properly.

For example, the demo for Batman Arkham Asylum really sold the game for me. I wasn't paying attention to it, because I figured it would end up being some overhyped licensed garbage. My wife convinced me to check out the demo, and it was really amazing and convinced me to preorder it. I realzied that what made the demo so good was the fact that they took 3 sections from the early part of the game and spliced them together to demonstrate the 3 main parts of the game: combat, stealth, and puzzle solving.

Then again, there have been demos that were far from a representative of the final game. I'd use Brutal Legend as an example. If you play the demo, you might assume that it was an action-adventure style game, or maybe a beat 'em up like God of War or something. However, the full game just changes into a more of an RTS at one point, and the demo gives no indication at all of that.

Then there's the demos of plain terrible games that no one would buy anyways.
 
Crappy game demos kill sales of games. What few demos do come out are often buggy, unstable, sometimes outright broken. Maybe if more was put into the actual game development and less into marketing, social media campaigns, and useless additional features that don't add to the game, they'd have time to whack together a demo that would make people WANT to play.
 
The reality is demos don't mean much anyway without wood of mouth to go with it. I have seen way too many shit games have great demos and a few fantastic games with awful demos.
 
When someone from company I have never heard of is complaining about demo's not helping his sales, I would ignore them (he has three games to his name, one compliment from Pixar (well they would compliment a Disney licensed game after all), and the rest from nobodies, and the games look like they are geared towards 5-13 year old audience, if I didn't know any better I'd say these game belong on Facebook and kids that like frickin' Tinkerbell).

My general rule of thumb still stands, if there is no demo to promote the game, then it most likely sucks balls. There have been demos that have put me off purchasing a game, not many though, and I almost missed out on the first Dragon Age because there was no demo to try out...so there are some gems amongst the field of s#!te.

Probably why I won't buy Skyrim, no demo (I know it's supposed to be good), the price hasn't reduced for over a year, and the DLC is $20 a piece, and there are three of them (that's $119.96 total)...methinks you should get f@#*ed Bethesda for you jest.
 
One example of a game I bought largely because of the demo (I would have bought it eventually anyway, but the demo turned it from a "bargain bin" to a "launch day" purchase) was Space Marine. That was a fun demo and resulted in a fun game.
 
Demo’s are a catch-22. If your game is a new series, it’s a good way to get people interested, however if the demo “sucks” then many might not bother with the final. If skyrim had a crappy demo, I would still buy the final. Skyrim “TES” does not need a demo, but a new game might never make it on my desktop without a “good” demo.
Bottom line, “Demo” should be your best foot forward.
 
Extra Credits has a much better explanation then they did.

Think of it like this, Doom out sold Windows because of their Shareware demo. That's because Doom was a really really good game. If your game sucks, then a Demo will obviously hurt your sales. But also consider this, one way or another I'll want to try before I buy. Either through renting games, or just going to a friends who has it. Worst root is pirating, which is totally fair game if you fail to supply a demo. At least in my opinion it is.

I remember buying Diablo 3 and hating that I couldn't try the game before I bought it. Now I'm down $60 that I can't ever recover.
 
I agree with Steve.

There's lots of hate for Crytek, but they still release demos. For the most part, Crysis 3 will sell more because of one.
 
Demos have induced me to buy games. BioShock and Mass Effect 3 come to mind.

A good demo of a good game will increase sales. A good demo of a bad game (like a selectively-cut movie preview) will lead to disappointment. A bad demo of a good game is like a kickass computer in a shitty case--the question is who will look past the case? And a bad demo of a bad game...
 
When someone from company I have never heard of is complaining about demo's not helping his sales, I would ignore them (he has three games to his name, one compliment from Pixar (well they would compliment a Disney licensed game after all), and the rest from nobodies, and the games look like they are geared towards 5-13 year old audience, if I didn't know any better I'd say these game belong on Facebook and kids that like frickin' Tinkerbell).

My general rule of thumb still stands, if there is no demo to promote the game, then it most likely sucks balls. There have been demos that have put me off purchasing a game, not many though, and I almost missed out on the first Dragon Age because there was no demo to try out...so there are some gems amongst the field of s#!te.

Probably why I won't buy Skyrim, no demo (I know it's supposed to be good), the price hasn't reduced for over a year, and the DLC is $20 a piece, and there are three of them (that's $119.96 total)...methinks you should get f@#*ed Bethesda for you jest.

Your are outayourhead :D
Skyrim ((PC version) ) is worth every penny. With all the mods, CK and DLC’s you can easily get 400hrs into it.
I have over 600hrs, between testing my mods and playing others.
If you do buy Skyrim and you really like “old-school” RPG’s, download “requiem”. Its like “Baulders Gate”…if you go wandering around, you get your ass kicked, add “frostfall” and you’re in for some serious RPG.
 
Your are outayourhead :D
Skyrim ((PC version) ) is worth every penny. With all the mods, CK and DLC’s you can easily get 400hrs into it.
I have over 600hrs, between testing my mods and playing others.
If you do buy Skyrim and you really like “old-school” RPG’s, download “requiem”. Its like “Baulders Gate”…if you go wandering around, you get your ass kicked, add “frostfall” and you’re in for some serious RPG.

I'm not sure what part of "there is no demo, it costs $60, and $120 after all the DLC to date", you didn't get?

I shall wait for the game of 3 years ago edition where it has all the DLC and has dropped to $20.
 
I'm not sure what part of "there is no demo, it costs $60, and $120 after all the DLC to date", you didn't get?

I shall wait for the game of 3 years ago edition where it has all the DLC and has dropped to $20.

Well, luckily for you there were plenty of other gamers willing to pay full price for the game when it came out to pay back for the costs of developing the game and to reward the developers with a profit. If every other gamer also held back every time a new game came out until a huge price drop, you'd never get any big budget games again.
 
Yes, game demos do kill sales. They either A) satisfy you enough to not care about getting the game, or B) extinguish your perceived mental image of how the game experience would be, bringing it down to earth and making you take a step back to think "is this game really what I thought it would be? do I even want to buy it still?". Neither scenario is good for a game dev.
 
I shall wait for the game of 3 years ago edition where it has all the DLC and has dropped to $20.

Oblivion GOTY Deluxe which has SOME DLC, but not ALL, is still $25 on Steam.

That's the "Game of Seven Years Ago" edition.

But, hey, it's worth it.

FYI, Morrowind "Game of Eleven Years Ago" edition DOES have all the DLC and is $20 :D You should try it out.
 
Yes, game demos do kill sales. They either A) satisfy you enough to not care about getting the game, or B) extinguish your perceived mental image of how the game experience would be, bringing it down to earth and making you take a step back to think "is this game really what I thought it would be? do I even want to buy it still?". Neither scenario is good for a game dev.

Two whole scenarios?
 
Sorry, I wasn't aware I was supposed to write a treatise on the subject. :rolleyes:

You forgot that some demos can be good and people can and do buy based on that. I don't care about your personality issues, just that you stated your self matter-of-factly.
 
You forgot that some demos can be good and people can and do buy based on that. I don't care about your personality issues, just that you stated your self matter-of-factly.

Uh-huh. I actually just outlined two scenarios off the top of my head... you misinterpretted the post then. Again, you might want ease up on the trolling: no one gives a crap :) about your conceited fake-snobbery. Stop mini-modding and go fly a kite or something useful, kiddo.
 
Well, luckily for you there were plenty of other gamers willing to pay full price for the game when it came out to pay back for the costs of developing the game and to reward the developers with a profit. If every other gamer also held back every time a new game came out until a huge price drop, you'd never get any big budget games again.

Wouldn't be a problem if the DLC was included, I have bought plenty of full games, and even the ones I missed first time around as a collectors pack. The only time I buy a game that requires a crapload of DLC to complete the story of the game has been with astonishingly great sales prices like Mass Effect 2 collectors edition, got that for under $10, after buying all the DLC, it cost about the same as what they were asking for the standard copy of the game, did the same thing with Dawn of War II although it wasn't essential to the story, it certainly helped in multi-player.

I refuse to pay for an incomplete game, and then pay some more for the DLC to have the full story...Unless it's on sale and I can purchase the DLC to equate to the cost they asked for the game originally, or it's being sold for it's regular price with all the DLC included (Game of five years ago edition, I'm looking at you Mass Effect series).

If the publisher suffers for being a greedy f#@k then maybe there is hope for them to realize not everyone is willing to keep shelling out their cash on episodic/essential to the story DLC (Lair of The Shadow Broker for ME2, or From The Ashes for ME3 is a perfect example), I'm not intentionally harming the publisher or the developer, I just don't have $120 (double the asking price of the game) to throw away for a complete product.
 
Uh-huh. I actually just outlined two scenarios off the top of my head... you misinterpretted the post then. Again, you might want ease up on the trolling: no one gives a crap :) about your conceited fake-snobbery. Stop mini-modding and go fly a kite or something useful, kiddo.

It was an either/or statement. I was just pointing out that those weren't the only 2 possible outcomes.
 
Agree 100%, Steve. Make a decent game, and the demo will perpetuate a sale. What comes to mind as a big success was the shareware (demo) of Castle Wolfenstein, with all the buy options at the end.

Take DNF, for example of a crappy game. I played the demo ONCE... in fact, I didn't even finish it. Hence, I don't own the game, even with all the dirt cheap sale prices.
 
Wouldn't be a problem if the DLC was included, I have bought plenty of full games, and even the ones I missed first time around as a collectors pack. The only time I buy a game that requires a crapload of DLC to complete the story of the game has been with astonishingly great sales prices like Mass Effect 2 collectors edition, got that for under $10, after buying all the DLC, it cost about the same as what they were asking for the standard copy of the game, did the same thing with Dawn of War II although it wasn't essential to the story, it certainly helped in multi-player.

I refuse to pay for an incomplete game, and then pay some more for the DLC to have the full story...Unless it's on sale and I can purchase the DLC to equate to the cost they asked for the game originally, or it's being sold for it's regular price with all the DLC included (Game of five years ago edition, I'm looking at you Mass Effect series).

If the publisher suffers for being a greedy f#@k then maybe there is hope for them to realize not everyone is willing to keep shelling out their cash on episodic/essential to the story DLC (Lair of The Shadow Broker for ME2, or From The Ashes for ME3 is a perfect example), I'm not intentionally harming the publisher or the developer, I just don't have $120 (double the asking price of the game) to throw away for a complete product.

Assuming a game is "incomplete" because of DLC being made available eventually is a huge assumption, unless you are discussing a game from EA (take THAT EA, you bunch of jerks!). Nothing of the DLC content made for Skyrim is linked to the story for the original game or required to finish it. In fact, there were numerous free content updates provided by Bethesda that fixed issues and introduced improvements and new features.

The DLC packs have their own, independant story missions that don't have any real impact on the story missions or side missions that come with the game. In fact, the Dragonborne DLC pack has it's own section of the world to explore. In addition, the DLC wasn't even made until well after the game came out. I bought the first 2, but all that it provided to me was the ability to craft arrows and the ability to make a house. I can honestly say that the game isn't made much better by the DLC.

Trust me, the main game is complete in and of itself.
 
I agree with most people in this thread....shitty games kill game sells. If the demo is good and leaves me wanting more, I will buy.
 
Probably why I won't buy Skyrim, no demo (I know it's supposed to be good), the price hasn't reduced for over a year, and the DLC is $20 a piece, and there are three of them (that's $119.96 total)...methinks you should get f@#*ed Bethesda for you jest.

To be fair Skyrim is a game that would be almost impossible to make a demo of, not unless you were going to surgically chop a piece out of the world or something and wall it off.
 
It's not a problem with Skyrim. You already know what you are getting more or less.

That, and when you know a million people are going to buy on launch day, your game's reputation is made almost instantly by word of mouth.

But all the middleweight games that go by on Steam where I have no idea if they are something I might enjoy? Games with metascores under 80? Yeah, if I buy those it's only on supersale because I don't have to be disappointed when they suck. And they usually suck.

It's not hard to play 20 games to find ONE quality one.
 
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