WTF happened to DEMOS?

[ImpulsE69]

Back when Doom came out, literally 1/3 of the game could be shared with your friends. It had 3 chapters, and the first chapter was shareware.



If anything this is totally backwards. Pre-order makes a lot of sense for online purchases because the game starts downloading immediately. I purchased Fallout 3 before it was released and the whole thing was downloaded and ready to go b. The download time was something shitty like 3 days so it actually made a difference.

Brick and mortar is where it doesn't make sense. Have you ever seen Best Buy run out of games? Nintendo Wii is the only thing I have ever seen a shortage of. When a game like Gears of War 2 hits the shelf, every store has hundreds of copies. If one store runs out, you just go to another store.

I'm curious about how old you are, because I think you completely missed the point of my post. (I'm not being a dick, I'm using age as a reference point). In "my" day (omg) we only had local stores and they DID run out of stock. Pre-orders were somewhat necessary if you REALLY wanted a game on day 1 or even the first week. Then came the age of online purchasing. At that point, preordering could be beneficial if you wanted it to being in your hands on day 1. Pre-ordering digital downloads is only a carry over from the old days (and apparently still works for them), but for as easy as it is to get the game later - I think more people would wait until the game has actually come out and see how it is. These days stores don't run out, there are too many places you can purchase them.

These days - with more ppl interested in digital copies than physical copies, there is NO NEED to preorder. They don't run out. Downloading before? I suppose that's a legit argument if you are truly that desperate to play a game. I had Fallout 3 on day 1 as well, and didn't preorder (AND) had a physical copy.

Again, I am just guessing you are a bit younger than me and never experienced no stores in 50 miles having the game you wanted lol (could be wrong tho).

 

[Cheesetogo]

I remember when the IL-2 demo had several long campaign missions and multiplayer.

Or even more recent ones like BF2, which had a map for everyone to play online.

I think BF3 is supposed to have a demo.

 

[shortylickens]

Demos are more rare these days. My hypothesis is they don't want you to see how crappy the game is until after you've purchased it.

Thats exactly how I feel about it. So many games are crap or at the very least overhyped and underwhelming. They need you to not be absolutely sure and given the level of advertising they can take a risk that initial sales will be awesome and more than good enough to keep them afloat.

I think this concept probably started with Doom 3. As I recall we didnt have a proper playable demo until shortly after release. Thought I dont remember if somebody hacked and released any closed Betas or anything.

 

[Jschmuck2]

Back when Doom came out, literally 1/3 of the game could be shared with your friends. It had 3 chapters, and the first chapter was shareware.



If anything this is totally backwards. Pre-order makes a lot of sense for online purchases because the game starts downloading immediately. I purchased Fallout 3 before it was released and the whole thing was downloaded and ready to go b. The download time was something shitty like 3 days so it actually made a difference.

Brick and mortar is where it doesn't make sense. Have you ever seen Best Buy run out of games? Nintendo Wii is the only thing I have ever seen a shortage of. When a game like Gears of War 2 hits the shelf, every store has hundreds of copies. If one store runs out, you just go to another store.

You're confusing pre-ordering with pre-loading. Big difference.

EDIT: And like Impulse says, 15 years ago, B&M locations *did* run out of games.

Whippersnap

 

[ShawnD1]

I'm curious about how old you are, because I think you completely missed the point of my post. (I'm not being a dick, I'm using age as a reference point). In "my" day (omg) we only had local stores and they DID run out of stock. Pre-orders were somewhat necessary if you REALLY wanted a game on day 1 or even the first week.

I'm 25. Where do you live? I've never once seen this happen for any game ever. Even Super Mario 3 didn't run out, and every single person in the world bought that game (even the people in Africa who were starving to death). I got the NES and Mario 3 the same week Mario 3 came out

Back in Mah Day, most games were purchased at Toys R Us. I don't know when they first came to Canada but they were here longer than I've been alive. They existed in the US long before that.

 

[KaOTiK]

I'm 25. Where do you live? I've never once seen this happen for any game ever. Even Super Mario 3 didn't run out, and every single person in the world bought that game (even the people in Africa who were starving to death). I got the NES and Mario 3 the same week Mario 3 came out

Back in Mah Day, most games were purchased at Toys R Us. I don't know when they first came to Canada but they were here longer than I've been alive. They existed in the US long before that.

I saw it happen quite often for big games. Stores would take almost a week to restock.

Last time I can remember this happening though was in the PS1 days. Now more places sell more games and carry a lot more of them in general. I don't think it is possible not to find a game on release date nowadays though.

Any big release now you can walk into most stores and they literally have a pallet of them sitting there, like a candy display lol.