EA To Charge For Game Demos

Kohato brings word of a new Electronic Arts marketing strategy that aims to start monetizing game demos. According to industry analyst Michael Patcher after an EA investor visit, the publisher will start selling "premium downloadable content" prior to a game's release for $10-$15 that is essentially a longer-than-usual demo. Patcher said, "I think that the plan is to release PDLC at $15 that has 3-4 hours of gameplay, so [it has] a very high perceived value, then [EA will] take the feedback from the community (press and players) to tweak the follow-on full game that will be released at a normal packaged price point." He also made reference to a comment from EA's CEO John Riccitiello that "the line between packaged product sales and digital revenues would soon begin to blur."

Comments

Re:Shareware

[Lunix Nutcase]

How is this shareware? Shareware was giving away free trial versions of a software that you then had to pay to upgrade to the full version. This is selling people a beta version of a game to demo.

Re:$15 dollars for 4 hours of gameplay?

[Bugamn]

I think the article says that one would need 3 to 4 hours to finish the demo, not that it would be a time-bomb demo with a fuse of 3 to 4 hours.

Re:It's the Polyphony Digital model!

[mathx314]

Same with Torchlight. The only way it's a demo is that they're using the same engine and some of the same assets to build an MMO. The game itself is a complete (and incredibly fun) Diablo clone.

Sensationalist Buillshit

[MobileTatsu-NJG]

What the headline says:

"EA To Charge For Game Demos"

What the article says:

- None of the proposals call for charging consumers for traditionally free game demos.