Where’s the PC Demo going?

[Ned]

Check out the thoughts of TOG Carnaldestruct on the future of PC demos..

Where’s the PC Demo going? PC Feature | TOG - The Older Gamers

With so many huge up-and-coming new releases for 2010, I ponder the thought, "How many of these will the PC gamer taste as demo's?"

Having never owned a console of any kind, and being purely a PC gamer, I've found it quite perplexing that we are being given less demo's each year for new titles.

Agree with all or some points? Disagree on others?

Have your say!

[Reoh]

Well it does cost them money to release a demo, but isn't that really an investment of the future? Take COD4. I tried the demo, played it like mad for a week.. bought the full version. I hadn't played an FPS in over a decade, almost two. I even bought COD5 too, and would've bought COD:MW2 if it'd had dedicated servers.

Demo's for applications = Free apps
Demo's for games = game sales.

[Ned]

Originally Posted by Reoh

but isn't that really an investment of the future?

Devs can also use a pre-release beta as a kind of final beta... win-win really if done right.

[Mysterio3]

thing is, PC beta is alot harder to coordinate since everyone has a different system. the point of a beta is to find faults within the game itself which is why its easier for devs to release betas on consoles where EVERY system is the same. No compatibility issues, no software clashes, no background program issues, just purely the game.

[Snott]

Would it not also be useful for them to know it will (or will not) run on the sytems it gets tested on during PC Beta though?

[Mysterio3]

well, often the game isnt fully complete during the beta, the point is usually to test the engine the game runs on, if they release it on PC first, they have to be damn sure any problems that come up arent caused by the systems because if it wasnt a problem with the engine and they make further changes, it could screw up the result. On consoles, they can rule it out system issue completely. Once they know the engine works, thats when they can start testing on PC to see if there are any compatibility issues and pretty much to advertise their game.
and yes it would be useful to know if it will run smoothly on PC, but they can test that easily using PCs in a controlled environment that dont have random malware/viruses/etc that may cause problems, because lets face it, anyone that uses the internet will have some sort of malware/virus/spyware/etc on their systems.

[Reoh]

Developer: "When we open the game to Beta, we invite people in who we used to have to pay, but now test our system for free and report any bugs they find.

Gamer: "Beta's coming, awesome! FREE GAME!"
(followed shortly by)
Gamer: "That game sucks, its full of bugs!"

[Snott]

That sums it up nicely!

[Spectre8]

I'm still impressed with what Valve managed to do with Half Life 2, and it's Steam implementation. Sure there was a demo, and sure it sucked a lot of people in, but that was then...

The best and most important thing that I think came of it (from a hindsight point of view) is the stat tracking that Steam allowed. It provided bulk, raw data on system types, player profiles and time spent in-game. But not only that, it also went deeper. It tracked how much time was spent on levels, and if and where people played to.

There was one level in particular that people really struggled with. Spent more time on that one level than any other - and it proved to be a game breaker for some. So Valve noticed that that one level was causing all sorts of problems for people. Next patch comes around, and they've tweaked that one level a little. More ammo, fewer enemies - and more people finishing the game!

What we've got here is real-time stat tracking on a level never before possible. Now while this is possible via demo's - it's real benefit is in beta testing, or even post release.

So demo's? Slow decline I think. But hell, these things go through cycles. We started off with Shareware and Freeware, then demo's - now we're in the era of open beta's. What next I wonder??

[Reoh]

Pay4beta, and its already here.