The Demo IS A BIG DEAL
What do 'triple A' (shudder) companies have against making demos of their games? I was dissecting a game demo that I installed recently, and found it full of uncomrpessd wavs and bitmaps. Every game dialog box was a hardcoded bitmap. What on earth were they thinking? This wasn't a hobbyist game, its a big budget one. naturally, the dmeo was huge.
In a recent discussion on game demos, and their absence for many titles I saw someone say this:
why put more time than needed into a demo during the middle of the development cycle?
This is soooo wrooonnnnnnnnnng.
Even if you are arrogant enough (as many AAA companies are) to ASSUME you will sell 100k units, you are aware that there are now 4 billion people on earth (at least). You do realise there are probably people out there who MIGHT buy the game if they KNOW they like it, and the only way to know that is to play it for a bit right?
I reckon a good demo can add 50-75% to the sales of a good quality traditional retail game. I'm always buying games based on their demos.
But hey, why should I give a damn if the retail games industry is still acting like fools. Knock yourself out guys :D
In a recent discussion on game demos, and their absence for many titles I saw someone say this:
why put more time than needed into a demo during the middle of the development cycle?
This is soooo wrooonnnnnnnnnng.
Even if you are arrogant enough (as many AAA companies are) to ASSUME you will sell 100k units, you are aware that there are now 4 billion people on earth (at least). You do realise there are probably people out there who MIGHT buy the game if they KNOW they like it, and the only way to know that is to play it for a bit right?
I reckon a good demo can add 50-75% to the sales of a good quality traditional retail game. I'm always buying games based on their demos.
But hey, why should I give a damn if the retail games industry is still acting like fools. Knock yourself out guys :D
posted by cliff at
4:47 PM
