Game Demos Key to Game Purchases 77
GameDailyBiz is carrying a story looking at the importance of demoing a game before purchase, a factor apparently crucial in game buying decisions for many gamers. The NPD research found that demoing a game was even more important than the price of the game, when buying a title for yourself. Price was the ultimate deciding factor in game purchasing for gifts, however. From the article: "This kind of finding could be particularly important to publishers trying to determine the best way to divide up their marketing spend. Perhaps publishers would be better off putting more resources into providing gamers with a high-quality demo instead of investing heavily in a huge ad campaign. With in-store kiosks, Xbox Live Marketplace and the online features of the soon-to-be-launched PlayStation 3 and Wii, it's becoming easier than ever for publishers to distribute their game demos directly to the audience they're after."
WTF (Score:5, Funny)
When did "spend" become a noun?
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Probably around the same time that businesses started trying to ensure that they were synergizing their expenditures
I was tempted to say "seriously though...." to start this new para, but then I realized that using phrases like that is now so common that no one would "get the joke" .... ... I don't even remember what I really wanted to say now :-(
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Hey, I remembered...
I've got some anecdotal evidence (since that passes for research around here) that supports the assertion of the OP. I bought WoW a little over a year ago. My girlfriend, also a gamer, said that she would never play that game, and that it looked kinda stupid. I think she said something like "those MMO's or whatever the hell they're called are for losers... next thing you'll be asking me to start a D&D group or something..."
So I installed the 10 day trial game on her PC... she bough
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P.
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The same time that the marketing, advertising and media industries sprung into existence. I'm in advertising, and it is a commonly used term to quickly refer to the amount of money someone has spent on a buy (short for a media buy). Bet you didn't know "buy" was a noun either!
In proper english your assumption would be correct, but this is industry jargon so it is the exception.
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Marketers noun language.
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The same time verbs were nouned and adjectives were verbed, as in:
Verbing nouns weirds the language.
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Not for me (Score:2)
I wonder what this says about me.
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It says you have a lot of disposable income.
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I enjoy playing a demo at a store if I see one, but usually they're so bloody annoying to actaully get into a demo to play I give up before I make it past all the info. screens.
I have 3 factors that will determine a game purchase...
I usually check the review on IGN.com for their score. Anything that's a 9/10 or higher is pretty much sold in my book if it meets the other two criteria well enough. Anythi
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Your myopically self-centered, pathologically egotistical post made my day.
-stormin
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I see demo kiosks at 2 places: WalMart and Target. Both (when they're working and turned on) usually have nasty, crusty controllers and are surrounded by 10-year old twerps. The majority of the time they just aren't turned on (which I assume means they're broken)
(yes, I am aware that EBGames has kiosks. Those usualy aren't as crusty, however the 16 year old twerps that surround those a
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Guess it depends on where you're from.
-stormin
Works for music too (Score:2)
But, the principle works for me for music. I won't buy stuff that I don't know if I will like (unless it is very cheap, then I tend to add a few extra discs for a couple bucks to an order, if descriptions sound decent - but so far I haven't found any good music this way).
None for me today, thank you (Score:2)
For the PC
Unreliable (Score:4, Insightful)
Downloadable demos are notoriously bad. Game companies hack their game apart to coble to together a demo and shove it out the door. They don't give a crap about bugs, and a demo appears to be a complete afterthought.
Game studios should plan for a demo in advance. Having some bugs is acceptable, but too many will turn your users away from your game. I played the Caesar IV demo and refuse to buy the full game because of their demo. The installation process was brutal and completely retarded (for instance, I have DirectX 9.0c installed, but their demo installer insisted on uninstalling my DirectX and installing a fresh, unpatched copy of DirectX 9.0c, requiring no less than 3 reboots; it installed the
Make a good demo and you'll see even better sales figures.
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I'm kind of confused here. Even if most demos are really bad, that wouldn't contradict that the ones that are really good don't sell a lot of games. And even if the demos are bad - that doesn't mean they don't have an impact. That just means that people are being turned off by shoddy demos.
I personally won't buy a game until I've demoed it or have a friend who knows my very well inform me that I must, in fact, trade my soul to play this game. I probably only buy a
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Bad games with good demos won't sell, as you point out with the zombie-in-the-mall demo.
Partial Reason the Gamecube was a Disappointment (Score:1)
It only works for good games (Score:2)
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I want a test that only returns positive for good games. That's exactly the metric I'm looking for. If it occasionally returns negative for good games, I can live with it, as long as the number of true positives is high enough that it keeps my game playing habit fed.
Companies should listen to this (Score:5, Insightful)
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We do (Score:5, Insightful)
If you want downloadable game demos, you want indie games. If you can live without cutting edge 3D effects, you will be pleasantly suprised.
I make a living (just) from selling downlaodable games, so it is absolutely ESSENTIAL for me to put together a good, fun demo that gets people into the game as quickly as possible, with no fuss, no delays.
To achieve this I make sure that:
1)the demo is small as it can be
2)the demo is the exact same code version as the full game. If the demo works fine, the full game does too
3)the demo starts up asap, with no logo nonsense.
4)you can *trivially* get my demo, from a direct
Its been obvious to me and my fellow devs that making a good demo available is *crucial* to any game that isn't hyped to oblivion. Where I used to work, they relied on hype to sell the games, so made sure they didnt get a demo done in time for release (if at all). Personally, I think gamers deserve to try before they buy.
Sorry for the long adver-rant, but this is an issue i feel really strongly about. Demos are essential for PC games, and so many companies screw it up.
Re: Why the others don't (Score:3, Insightful)
Actually, it's not amazing at all. The "indies" have a strong advantage here, almost to the point of being a market inefficiency, because of the different business models:
With a "Big House" developer or distributor, marketing is separate from development. A "demo" or "Beta Demo" is a marketing requirement on development. If developers are trying to hold a timeline, that inevitably means that they won't alw
In what genre? (Score:2)
But are the "indies" producing games in the genres that I want? My PC has a TV output and a USB hub that accepts game controllers; where are the four-player PC games that take advantage of them? Where is the indie counterpart to Mario Party, Smash Bros., Bomberman, or WarioWare?
Mutual conflicts (Score:2)
Are you expecting size optimization to be performed to the extent that it was in .kkrieger [wikipedia.org], whose demo is 0.1 MB?
These requirements can be mutually conflicting. The full game may be optimized for speed, not size. In addition, the full game generally comes on a DVD, and its code includes an installer as well as verification of an auth
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The only real restriction I see here is extra size from artwork/textures/models/sound/music/levels (assets). The size of the program executable from compiling with "size" vs "speed" is negligible in most cases, for download purposes. If your game is developed
Mutual conflicts explained (Score:2)
Your nonstandard phrasing ("A is B is C is D") makes it difficult to break up quoted text to address each point of your comment.
Copy authentication code that is separate from the game engine is ineffective, as it gives those who would defeat the copy authentication a single point to attack. Effective copy authentication relies on making the obscurity [wikipedia.org] r
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Hmm, interesting points. Let me see if I can answer them one by one.
I'm still not clear as to why you'd need copy authentication in the demo. If you're using a serial-key based system for online-based authentication (for multiplayer) I don't see why you couldn't just require the serial just for multiplayer. Set up your game so that single player requires no authentication, and multiplayer matchmaking through your server requires one. People with the demo don't get a key, but don't need one. People wh
Interpreted AI makes a game run slower (Score:2)
If your computer is compatible with everything but the copy authentication, which is often based on bad sectors on the DVD or the Burst Cutting Area or something hardwareish like that, then a computer might be compatible with everything in the game except its copy authentication. Cue stories of people getting no-CD cracks just to make games that use StarForce work.
A
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I agree that it's nice to get good demos before a game is released, but if it's a choice between a shoddy demo while the game is still in development and a great demo after the game is released, I'll take "after the game is released", please.
There's really no reason to have to get a game the *day it comes out*, as far as I'm concerned. I routinely buy ol
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I encourage everyone else to do the same.
Today, the only demos I d/l and try are those of the indie game companies.
Xbox Live downloads changed my demo habits (Score:1, Interesting)
Xbox Live has however really changed that, it's very much easier and I have actually started downloading every demo
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Hopefully press like this will convince MS and developers to spend more time making the demos nicer. I liked the idea of being able to use
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Demo (Score:3, Interesting)
1) Try it yourself
2) Read the box cover and judge from that
3) Force a brother/friend/slave to buy/rent the game.
4) Pester the Gamestop people about it incessantly until they ban you from the store for harassment.
Obviously 1 and 3 are related, while 2 and 4 are suboptimal. Quite simply, I'm far more inclined to buy games I have experience with beforehand. It took me about 5 minutes of actually play to realize I liked Ninja Gaiden on the Xbox, while it can take a day's worth of review and opinion browsing to even get a feel for some of the basic mechanics of a game, let alone finer points.
Because of that, I really enjoy demoing and renting games first. It's far more time efficient and worthwhile.
Hmm... Not Really (Score:2)
I was once a huge fan of the demo download stuff on Xbox Live after buying my Xbox 360, but I've learned over the months that the downloadable demos are rarely representative of the final product. Th
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That's because of a magical invention we like to call a "movie trailer". And you know, they make those trailers before movies are completely finished with production as well. So maybe dev/publishers could get their act together to get some demos out there with polish similar to what you see with trailers.
In any case - who juts goes out and buys DVDs they've ne
Parents who buy G-rated DVDs on impulse (Score:2)
A lot of parents by DVDs on impulse. Specifically they buy G-rated DVDs, especially those distributed by The Walt Disney Company, to let them use the television as a surrogate babysitter.
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-stormin
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Then I suggest you go and fund a study to see if you can find evidence for your claim. When comparing a study of 12,100 video game purchasers to your personal buying-habits anecdote, you'll forgive me if I weight the sample size of 12,100 more heavily than I do the sample size of 1.
When you're talking about a $60 purchase, it's not a terribly surprising result to find that
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For years, computer users have had the option to download demos of games right onto their hard drive for evaluation before purchase. But as for game consoles, this is an entirely new concept. People who buy game consoles demand convenience in their gaming experience. Very few people I know would knowingly walking up to their game console, pop in a demo game disc just to get five or ten minutes of use
Multi-game demo discs (Score:2)
Then have each publisher put demos of, say, all its 2006 titles on its 2007 demo disc. I seem to remember a disc distributed with the original PlayStation that had playable demos for ten games on it.
Mobile phones (Score:2)
I don't know what other carriers are like, but Verizon has very, very few games offered through Get It Now that have demos. No way am I going to pay $10 for a game I've not seen nor heard of before. This is the reason I have never bought any games on Get It Now (beside the fact that they are all super expensive and I'd rather blow my cash on real computer games).
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I'll second that emotion. I just got a phone from T-Mobile, and it has a demo version of something called Midnight Pool [gameloft.com]. You can play up until someone's cleared everything but the 8-ball. The full version costs $5.99, and I'm seriously considering it. But there's no way you'd have convinced me to spend six bucks on a mobile phone game that may or may not work. M
never get to use my joystick (Score:1)
Tell me some good demos!
More demo per meg, please (Score:3, Interesting)
I got antsy and bought Just Cause for PC last week. Oops. If I'd tried a demo (does one exist) I'd know it was an unpolished POS.
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I've been bit on buying games just too many times. I bought PSU today, knowing that it'd just be PSO with a little extra, and it
Obvious (Score:2)
It's also the reason the "demo" levels tend to be the most polished in the full versions of the game - it's been tested heavily by the users that point out every single flaw in the map/whatever. Compare this to the "final" levels in the retail, which appear to be rushed in order to meet some deadline.
The last game I purchased was Shadowgrounds - ba
Especially important for the Mac (Score:2)
In other news, advertising can increase sales (Score:2)
Several posters have mentioned that demos are often buggy, and not representative of the final product. This may be true, but it really doesn't matter.
In the first place, since the article is proposing that good demos sell games, I don't see how bad demos really counter the assertion.
In the se
Thanks for the tip, Sherlock (Score:2)
ZOMG!!! Who'da thunk it?
Seriously, are media execs so ignorant of the real world that something like this is big news?
Hey, game industry execs! Here are a few other apparently crucial factors in game buying decisions:
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* Reasonable price - Wrong
* Works properly (i.e. few bugs) - Wrong
* Is fun to play - Wrong
* Doesn't contain spyware, etc. - Wrong
From the actual Sales Data [joystiq.com]
The crucial factors are:
* Famous brand
* Sequel
* If possible BOTH
* Make a poor ripoff of a good game and add more violence and vulger language
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Let's see if I can make a response appropriate to your level of debate...
Hey <noun insult>!
<whatever you said> - Wrong
Here's why [kaejae-worx.com]
Demos are ok, but... (Score:3, Insightful)
The problem with demos is it is the only really clean piece of code the game company will release, including its Gold image. They want to wow the customer, so they make that a really tightly QA'd portion of the game. You play it, and think "this is really tight! The gameplay was fast, fun, and I bet the rest of the game is the same way". And it often isn't. Especially since many development shops leave critical bugs in the game to foil the pirates that want to have the orignal disc image. Nothing like a zero-day patch to spoil any pirates!
So, the demo may be clean, but the rest of the game could be buggy as hell, requiring multiple patches to make it run smoothly for even the most common of system setups.
Anyone that plays a demo just needs to remember that what they are playing is probably tbe cream of the work done for that project.
Double-edged Sword (Score:1)
Spending Surveys (Score:3, Interesting)
A-Magazine
B-Television
C-Friend
D-Saw it in a games store
etc
They never ask E-I played the warez version and liked it enough to buy it. If they're not asking about that form of "demo-ing" a game, they'll never be able take into account people who want to try before they buy with the cracked version.
Size size size (Score:2)
I don't know about you, but... (Score:1)
Usually when I download a demo it's either to tide me over until a game I'll definitely buy releases (as happened recently with Dawn of War: Dark Crusade), or because I'm bored and want to play something new without having to spend any money. In the first case, I'm already sold on the game anyway. If I'm not exci
But not TOO good... (Score:2)
My example is Unreal Tournament 2004. While it was a successful game, the demo included several very good maps and online modes for them, and to this day there are far more people playing demo than the full version. I'm fairly confident that some of those people would have bought the full version if the demo hadn't been so thoroughly good.
So there's a tricky judgement to make about how much cont
Nintendo DS is great for this (Score:2)
It's a very nice system, very easy to use and great for consumers. I can't yet say that I've purchased something
Demos make a difference (Score:2)
I did the same thi