The Title has changed, the one you clicked on is not the correct one. The correct title is the title of this post, not the one from the Thread. If a mod could replace the Thread Title by the title of this post that would be great. If you just start flaming about what’s said in the old title it will simply show you were to lazy to read !
Hello,
Short Version : Splash Damage why didn’t you make a demo for Brink. IF you are going to say it’s costly or takes more time, then there are other solutions to make a demo. For exemple allow people to test the full game for a limited time only, then to play more they would have to buy it. It can be done, it has been done and you can either make it stand-alone or use a gaming platform for that !
Long version : Why are demos of PC games getting more and more rare?
Even though console adaptations and console games in general are getting demos. Most of the time a game that will release on PC and Console will have a demo on consoles but not on PC for exemple.
This is starting to get more and more recurring and some day demos on PC will be a thing long forgotten.
And don’t tell me “they preferred to keep their focus on making the game” or “demos are too costly” because most of the devs make one for consoles anyway !
Don’t forget that the most dedicated users and customers are PC gamers and not console gamers !
A PC gamer frequently has to upgrade his machine to play a new game, which sometimes represents a lot of cash in addition to the simple price of the game. Making a PC gamer generally more dedicated etc. A console gamer doesn’t need to upgrade anything except maybe his bracers ! He just buys the gaming console then just enjoys severals years of gaming with little problems on release, no install to go through, and his *** on a couch ! Well no ! I want my keyboard and mouse and huge pool of potential adversaries on internet that I get on PC ! Also, many console gamers don’t even buy the games, they just rent them or borrow them from their friends. We PC gamers BUY THE GAME ! Also many console gamers buy their games second hand.
So I know the console market makes a lot of publishers drool when they consider the money potential, but don’t forget that for console games people can rent them, for PC with all the online activations etc people actually BUY THE GAME ! So I’m pretty sure that in the end, PC gamers make publishers more money ! Don’t bite the hand that feeds you !
A demo is supposed to let people decide if they buy a game or not. Generally it’s way more expensive to play games on a PC than on a console, so it’s the people who will have to put up the bigger amount of cash that are entitled to a demo, not the dude that will just rent the game for his console then forget about it !
It’s us, the people who will buy it if it’s good then play it on internet for years and make mods for it etc … not the dude that will just rent it ! It’s US ! SO MAKE DEMOS FOR US AND NOT ONLY FOR CONSOLES ! At the dawn of video gaming it was not the consoles who helped publishers make money ! It was PC users, don’t just abandon PC users !
Demos are almost like a tradition in the gaming industry.
I understand they add costs, and they require some additionnal time. I know that making a console demo is probably cheaper than a PC demo but still, it’s important for many people to be able to play before they buy. For many reasons: to see if it’s fun, good, beautiful, to see if it runs well on their machines, how it runs on their machine in general, or even to see if it’s well packaged and well made without too many bugs etc (and bugs at release are more and more frequent, many times people feel the game is unfinished at release).
Even with all that in consideration, you can still make a demo, just change the way it’s done.
Instead of taking a part of the game that you will essentially cut out and paste somewhere else then have to package it etc, just
.
Like where people would download the whole game but only be able to play for a few minutes and that’s it, or an hour etc. It has been done in the past and will continue to (ex: battlefield 1943 on consoles, Starcraft 2 on PCs, Mafia 2 on PCs etc).
They could even create partnerships with other companies and for exemple make a “[insert game here] weekend” or day where people can play the game for free to check it out on a gaming platform or just as a stand-alone (with some sort of internal clock system etc.
