Why game demos are important

Developer should always be releasing demos of their upcoming titles.

They give gamers a taste of their video game and show the world that they are confident in what they've created.

[TheSleepyGamer]

I generally agree that demos are a good thing. It gives a glimpse at what the games are like and whether someone will enjoy them.

They can also be a bit of a double edged sword. Some games, especially RPG's just don't usually work as a demo. Other times when bad demo choices are made, i.e. putting the demo at the start of a game where there is hardly anything of interest can really hurt a games sales. There are also some game demos that show just about the only good part of a game, similar to that of film trailers.

Demos are important, sure. I'd just suggest that people look at more than just a demo before buying a game.

[ABizzel1]

Demos are great for consumers, but a double edged sword for developers.

A demo can confirm a purchase for gamers if it's good, but it can also lose one if it's bad or turn a game into a rental again not what the developer wants.

A demo can also be too long specially multiplayer and after playing it to death there's no real need to purchase the full game (example; "Gotham City Imposters" for me).

So I'm all for demos as a consumer, but developers better make sure they have a good game and a good demo or it can hurt.

[TheSleepyGamer]

You missed the point of what I was saying completely. A bad demo of a good game hurts good developers. A 'good' demo of a bad game makes people waste money that would be of better use with a game that actually deserves it.

The loss of good developers through no sales results in the consumers getting lower quality content. So yeah, not just a double edged sword for developers.

[xhedleyx]

I had that fatigue with Halo 3. I remember playing the multiplayer demo to death.

When the game finally came out, I wasn't as excited for it as I would have been if I didn't play the demo.

[pangitkqb]

Demos help ensure i spend my money wisely. Money times over I have skipped an anticipated game because the demo revealed major quality issues. Conversely, I've bought games I was barely aware of because the demo proved thrm to be totally awesome.

[ironfist92]

Demos should be conmpulsory for all games. im annoyed when games dont have them, because im cautious as to whether I should spend my money on them in fear of being dissapointed.

[kevnb]

demos dont work well for the games I play. They are fine for games without much depth, but for games with depth they end up misrepresenting the game.

[tarbis]

Yes, indeed. Demos and beta tests are important. Players can give feedbacks to developers on what to improve as well suggest ideas that might interest them.
I always download and try demos of new and upcoming games that I'm unfamiliar of, particularly western games.

[SnakeCQC]

I wish more pc games had demos mainly so i could see if they worked well with a pad and to see if i get insane screen tear / normal vidual bugs(yes i live by v sync but i cite metro 2033 and star wars the force unleashed badly coded games)

[GamerSciz]

Herein lies the issue with demos...

First off, a demo is supposed to be a piece of the final/finished game. However some devs and gamers alike end up calling an open beta of a game, a demo and then they tend to place judgement on that beta as if it were a demo. This is the issue with demos today. No one seems to know what a demo really is and honestly not every game has a demo before release. Based on recent situations with, well a ton of games, I feel that Q.A. in games has become just about utter garbage as far as a fun factor and debugging. How often in recent times have games labeled games as "incomplete" or "broken". This is largely in part due to not having a beta or demo at all. At least in a beta we as the gamers try and tell the devs what is broken. This to me seems helpful as you can tell the games that have done it have been released and are tons better then the original betas (usually).

End rant....but every game should have a beta (open or closed or both) and a demo before release. That way the gamers can help shape the game into what they want. After all the consumer is always right :)

[catfrog]

games need demos because marketing is insane. every game is marketed to try and get people to buy it, not to show consumers what theyre buying. its insane, half the time i dont know what im buying, im just hoping that becasue the publishers spent so much on marketing that theyre confident in their game

[pat_11_5]

I'm a big fan of demos. If I'm on the fence about a game, a demo almost always pushes me to actually go out and purchase it.

Unless the demo sucks of course.

[steve30x]

I much rather play a Demo than rely on Videos and reviews , because those reviews are somebody elses opinion. They might hate the game and I might love it so much that I clear it a few times. Most of the time the Videos they push out to the public dont show proper gameplay or I juat cant get a feel for what the game is like. Its a bad idea for developers and publishers to rely on their videos and reviews for sales.