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[ProgenitorCastle]

Hey GAF! Right now I'm amazed, genuinely floored by how incredible Ghostwire: Tokyo is shaping up in this 25 minute preview!



Still watching as I'm typing this, but maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan it's soared up on my hype list! It's first person...but it has that vibe of like a PlatinumGame but in first person in that both the player and enemy animations feel like a third person action game but only in first person perspective! Glad I pre ordered the Best Buy Windows physical steelbook edition!

So back to the point of the thread...I really think a game like this could benefit from a demo because it's too under the radar as it is now. I don't expect this game to be the next Elden Ring popularity wise, but I think a demo will do a great job letting the people on the fence try it out and get a feel for it gameplay wise, hopefully giving it a chance to become a cult classic at the very least.

So what say you GAF? Are there any games, upcoming or already released, that could benefit from a demo?

 

[TheMay30thMan]

Every. Single. One.

 

[RCU005]

Every. Single. One.

This should be the only answer, but there are very few exceptions.

 

[Dthomp]

Every. Single. One.

Pack it up folks, Thread over. This is the only correct answer

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

Every. Single. One.

This is not true.

The reason we don't have demos today is because the industry understands how powerful FOMO is.

Playing an hour of that big new release, and going "meh", hurts sales.

Elden Rings sales would have been considerably lower if they released a substantial demo for it. Demos benefit the consumer, not the publishers pocketbook.

 

[Captain Toad]

The reason we don't have demos today is because the industry understands how powerful FOMO is.

I don’t know if that's necessarily true. I think the main reason is, it's expensive and time consuming putting together a playable vertical slice of a game that will help sell games.

Many games start off in a manner where just letting users play the first part doesn't make sense as a demo.

 

[Knightime_X]

This is not true.

The reason we don't have demos today is because the industry understands how powerful FOMO is.

Playing an hour of that big new release, and going "meh", hurts sales.

Elden Rings sales would have been considerably lower if they released a substantial demo for it. Demos benefit the consumer, not the publishers pocketbook.

That's an Elden Ring problem.
Be as transparent as possible instead of gas lighting your customers.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

I don’t know if that's necessarily true. I think the main reason is, it's expensive and time consuming putting together a playable vertical slice of a game that will help sell games.

Many games start off in a manner where just letting users play the first part doesn't make sense as a demo.

I can't see how giving players 60 minute access to the full game would be costly, or difficult to do in todays age.

Hype, marketing blitzes, and FOMO are all effective ways to get people to spend their money. Letting players sample your game runs counter to those strategies.

 

[Hawking Radiation]

Just have demo weekends where people can try all sorts of games for those 2 days.

 

[Captain Toad]

I can't see how giving players 60 minute access to the full game would be costly, or difficult to do in todays age.

The first 60 minutes of a lot of games would not be a great indicator of someone would like the game or not.

 

[Editaur]

Hopefully something comes out of that Game Slice patent Sony filed a few years ago.

If memory serves me right, it was a development tool where you can just create an in and out point within the game and share it via the cloud.

 

[Chronicle]

Wasn't it shown that demos turned out to be counterintuitive? I thought I read that they lead to less sales and that's why we see much less of them.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

The first 60 minutes of a lot of games would not be a great indicator of someone would like the game or not.

Then pick a certain allotment of time you'd like to give players.

If demos helped sales, they'd be all over the place. They don't. They hurt sales.

What percentage of players buy games like Elden Ring and never play more than 5 hours of it? 5 percent? 10 percent? That's a lot of money they want in their pocket rather than players pockets.

 

[Beechos]

All arcane games deserve a playable demo. None of their games make you want to play them just by looking at screenshots/video.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

Wasn't it shown that demos turned out to be counterintuitive? I thought I read that they lead to less sales and that's why we see much less of them.

Yes.

It's why the F2P model (essentially worlds largest demo) is so much more player friendly.

"Play our game...or don't...but if you do play it and like it, you can support us by buying our dumb cosmetics."

 

[Craig of War]

that looks great is the map the whole tokyo if so it might be a huge world im liking it

 

[Kiddo Cabbusses]

If demos helped sales, they'd be all over the place.

You underestimate how many demos are actually around. (Referring even to just ones you can download to whatever device it is meant to be played on right now, nevermind the long history of the game demo such as those mail-in Playstation demo discs and Store display demos.)

Heck, Nintendo's been more generous with demo distribution lately, and for games considered hype at that. (Metroid Dread, Kirby & The Forgotten Land)

As for the idea of demos helping a sale? I'd say a demo CAN, but there IS such a thing as a "Bad demo", and those can hurt game sales rather than help. Many people say a 60-minute demo is too much, but that depends. For a JRPG, you may need a 60-minute demo if it's mostly cutscenes and menus. For some other game types, the "time" is not so much the baseline of how much is "too much" but moreso the content put in. For example, a fighting game with both it's entire base player roster AND VS. mode is basically all you need for a tournament (You would not believe how common this is on Japanese demo discs), and the sandbox mode of any game may sate too well a casual player (PSOne Tony Hawk demos). On the other end of things, a demo that is too short (Sonic Forces) can be seen as a red flag. And of course, if your base game is bad to begin with, a demo is not gonna save you (Balan Wonderworld). Some demos are also put out too early in development to be indicative of the final product, or, in some cases, a product that never gets released.

Demos that probably HAVE sold games? I'm not sure how common they are nowadays, but if you go back to the Playstation era, you most likely played a demo of a game you later bought. I remember this experience with Parappa the Rapper. And certainly, Nintendo getting comfortable with demos indicates their faith that they are moving sales.

 

[Pantz]

Really enjoying the progress carries over demos. They sold me on a couple games I might not have gotten at release.
All the JPRG's should do this to get people invested in the story and feel like they have some kind of head start on those super long games.

 

[Sosokrates]

Thats the beauty of gamepass.

 

[ElCasual]

Abandoned.

 

[FunkMiller]

Every. Single. One.

The correct answer, first reply.

 

[ReBurn]

Wasn't it shown that demos turned out to be counterintuitive? I thought I read that they lead to less sales and that's why we see much less of them.

Yeah, when people learn that your game sucks they tend to not buy it.

 

[Plantoid]

Definitely not guardians of the Galaxy, had it for free, played about 2 hours, couldn't take it anymore, glad I didn't buy it

 

[German Hops]

Elden Ring

 

[Y0ssarian]

They need to make a demo for that new Valkyrie Elysium that's coming

 

[stranno]

I love how one knows that IGN sucks at playing the game even if you haven't played it yet.

 

[Zeroing]

Starfield!!

 

[M1chl]

This is genuinely why I love GamePass. I don't mind splashing money for games, however I always deeply hate when game sucks and I payed for it. And not sure how Microsoft would look if I would be refunding games every week, not the mention there are still platforms in 2022, where you can't do it.

 

[SeraphJan]

This is why you need Game Pass and PS Now

 

[Starfield]

Starfield

 

[German Hops]

Starfield??

 

[kraspkibble]

Just have demo weekends where people can try all sorts of games for those 2 days.

steam does free weekends. usually it's only one or two games but it's still cool they do that. in addition to it being free they usually also put it on sale during the free weekend.

i'd like to see Sony/MS to try that out.

 

[brian0057]

Every. Single. One.

The correct answer.

 

[Chukhopops]

Guardians of the Galaxy, completely ignored it at launch but now I’m in love with it in GP. Gameplay is paper thin (it’s basically Uncharted or even simpler) but the presentation, characters and dialogue are just too good, been a while since I enjoyed a story so much (maybe since Yakuza 7).

I feel sorry for it flopping but that’s what you get when you make Avengers and make a shit trailer.

 

[brian0057]

Guardians of the Galaxy, completely ignored it at launch but now I’m in love with it in GP. Gameplay is paper thin (it’s basically Uncharted or even simpler) but the presentation, characters and dialogue are just too good, been a while since I enjoyed a story so much (maybe since Yakuza 7).

I feel sorry for it flopping but that’s what you get when you make Avengers and make a shit trailer.

I refuse to play any Marvel game made by Square Enix due to the simple fact that they killed Deus Ex, one of the greatest gaming series ever, for some Disney cash.
Even if that superhero detritus is God's gift to gaming, they can fuck right off.

 

[zaanan]

Shareware and demos are the shit! Got me to shell out for Doom, Descent, and lots of others back in the day. If every game had a demo, not only would developers be forced to make good games, there would be no need for subscription services.

 

[rofif]

Every. Single. One.

you dont need a demo to know if you will like game like Death Stranding.
a 30min demo will not show you anything

 

[MastAndo]

The consumer benefits from having a demo for every game, not necessarily the developer.

A game like Guardians of the Galaxy is an example of one that probably would have benefited. I think people were under the impression that it was similar to The Avengers, which may have hurt sales.

 

[XXL]

Every VR game.

 

[adamsapple]

Every game ?

 

[TheMay30thMan]

you dont need a demo to know if you will like game like Death Stranding.
a 30min demo will not show you anything

Demos don’t have to be restricted to a specific timeframe, nor the beginning of a game.

 

[Chukhopops]

you dont need a demo to know if you will like game like Death Stranding.
a 30min demo will not show you anything

I would argue you’d get a good idea of Death Stranding gameplay in the first 30 minutes. I think the moment you finish your first delivery you’ll know if you like it or not.

I was in love the moment the first track started playing as you got close to the capital city.

 

[THE DUCK]

The first 60 minutes of a lot of games would not be a great indicator of someone would like the game or not.

I have yet to play a game ever in my entire life that I played 60 minutes of that I cannot determine if I like it or not.

 

[Bartski]

This is not true.

The reason we don't have demos today is because the industry understands how powerful FOMO is.

Playing an hour of that big new release, and going "meh", hurts sales.

Elden Rings sales would have been considerably lower if they released a substantial demo for it. Demos benefit the consumer, not the publishers pocketbook.

Elden Ring Closed Network Test was literally a 15 hours long demo of the game. But rather than making it public, they limited it to 50k "exclusive club". Now that's a FOMO power conscious move.

On the topic, I can think of some games where I really hated their demos but then somehow loved the full release on, like Prey (2017). I remember thinking Code Vein is pure trash after playing demo, got the game on gamepass later and it was ok.

 

[ClanOfNone]

Demos where progress carries over are where it's at. I would've missed out on Etrian Odyssey if it wasn't for the demo.

 

[EverydayBeast]

Games use to always have demos you have to make sure you have the hard drive space even demos are massive today they have trials now

 

[Tarnpanzer]

Guardians of the Galaxy

(before its release on Gamepass)

 

[Captain Toad]

I have yet to play a game ever in my entire life that I played 60 minutes of that I cannot determine if I like it or not.

I sure have. Lots of JRPGs, like Dragon Quest VII, for example. Games like that will often be light on gameplay the first couple hours, as they use that time for world building and mood setting. That would make for a terrible demo.

There are games that you start off limited, but pays off as you unlock abilities.

Then there are games that just start off poorly, but end up being better later on like Wolfenstein.

 

[Nitty_Grimes]

Deathloop.

 

[The_hunter]

Youtube longplay part 1, watch 20 minutes to see if you like the game or it runs well.
We do get a ton of free trials now, often after the game is out. We never used to get that.