Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Not Offering A Demo Better For Indie Games?

Posted by simoniker on from the odd-results-du-jour dept.

Thanks to DIYGames for their article showing surprising results from an independent game developer who offer games for sale directly on their website. According to the piece, "Every other visitor to the website is given an alternative page for each game that does not give them the option to download a demo of the game. The idea is to see how sales are affected by not giving users a free demo." So, while the article points out that "the results are less than scientific", 43.3% of total dollar volume came from 'demo available page', and 56.7% of the dollar volume from the 'no demo available page'. The developer concluded by working out that "not offering a demo increased sales revenue by roughly 31%." Does not offering a demo increase the sales of a game, sometimes, or is this just crazy talk?

4 of 56 comments (clear)

  1. If they added a survey... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    maybe they could have asked decent questions, obtained scientific results, and provided some social psychology major with raw data for his thesis. Too bad, now they'll just have to have an MBA look at his magic eight ball, and guess the wrong answer.

  2. Re:Depends by Hedonist123 · · Score: 3, Interesting
    But you should only release the demo if you've already developed the game to the point that it's going to rock. Many a good game has been ruined by releasing a crappy demo. People play the demo, see it sucks, and never try the real game, whether it's good or not. Good development is the key.

    hed.

    --
    http://goldysmom.blogspot.com
  3. Re:Other variables by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    actually, it *was* done with cookies and tracking. so yes, if you got the no-demos version, you should keep getting the no-demos version every time you come back.

    However, the demo was still available on download sites, so it was quite possible for people to come to the site and get the no-demos version after already having played the demo somewhere else.

  4. Demo files also end up on other sites! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    This "study" also does not take into consideration that game demos tend to make their way onto other game websites (fileplanet, and the zillion others). So what percentage of these people who got to the "no demo" buy page had actually PLAYED the demo, downloaded from some other site, and were at the site to purchase the game based on that??