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Game Sites Rebel Over Exclusive Demos

Posted by simoniker on from the dissention-in-the-ranks dept.

Thanks to Shacknews for their open letter regarding Activision's Call Of Duty demo for PC, which will apparently be initially exclusive (with some file-based protection?) to GameSpy's FilePlanet subscribers. The letter announces that "...the following websites will not be carrying the Call of Duty playable demo, even after its exclusivity is over", and includes notable signatories such as Blue's News and Shacknews themselves. The appeal continues: "The above-listed websites hope to show Activision that the enthusiast industry is strongly opposed to the idea of exclusive demo releases. Feedback from our users shows that gamers hate to be forced through a single point of congestion if they want a demo right away... Deals like this hurt the industry much more than they could possibly enhance a single relationship." Update: 08/29 06:25 GMT by S : Activision have bowed to pressure, and will make the demo available everywhere, non-exclusively, from Friday night.

6 of 50 comments (clear)

  1. well by toddhunter · · Score: 4, Insightful

    you can't blame them too much for trying something like this. Is there any chance we will be seeing more of it? Nah I think not.
    Game developers want you to play their demos, so pulling something like this, which can only limit the number of people playing it, is sure to fail.
    It's the old rule of the internet, anything you can buy somewhere, you can get free somewhere else. It won't be long before a gaming site that apposes this stuff becomes popular and so the cycle will continue

    1. Re:well by BrookHarty · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Actually, with demos reaching almost a gig on release, using fileplanet was the best method to get new files. But now with bittorrent, new releases should be easier than ever to download.

    2. Re:well by Soul-Burn666 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The idea is they will all use the SAME network.

      Meaning, DownloadSite and OtherDownloadSite could use the same .torrent... that is what would be best for everyone. Have different trackers means smaller user base meaning less efficiency.

      --
      ^_^
  2. Not A Bad Idea by rmohr02 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    1) Activision refuses to let anyone but FilePlanet host the demo.
    2) People outcry publicly.
    3) Stories about the problem cover the web--free publicity.
    4) Activision relents, making themselves look good.
    5) Profit!!!

    (I know I missed the "???" step--I'm sorry.)

  3. There is no exclusivity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Consider that you're a game developer.

    Would you:

    1. Rather code for one server system, or code for multiple?

    2. Choose the more popular service, which is more likely to stay in business, even though it has bugs, or use the less popular service which could go down at any time?

    3. Rather set up your own server, which costs money, and which you have to maintain, or use a free or pay service which is maintained by someone else and always guaranteed to be available?

    Even if you can set up your own servers, you still need a central point to distribute server lists so that players can find the games. That's what gamespy provides.

  4. Hrm... Something's wrong here... by Guppy06 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Stupid marketing trick, pissing off the world in general with it... Are you sure you don't mean Acclaim instead of Activision?