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

It's the Polyphony Digital model!

[YesIAmAScript]

Far, far ahead of their time.

Gran Turismo 4 and Gran Turismo 5 spawned "GT4: Prologue" and "GT5: Prologue" products which were cut-down versions of the eventual games to come out.

According to some definitions, "Torchlight" by Runic Games is the same thing.

The days of buying a game and feeling like you have the complete thing are coming to an end. It's nickle and dime time!

Hello, Gran Turismo 5 Prologue!

[psoriac]

Looks like EA saw how successful Sony's GT-5 Prologue was and decided that this is a viable business model for eagerly anticipated AAA titles.

If the demo purchase price could be applied as a credit on the final release I would have no problem with this, but somehow I think the chances of this being the case are pretty close to 0%.

Re:Hello, Gran Turismo 5 Prologue!

[Rivalz]

Um no.... GT-5 was not successful here is why. When I bought my ps3 years ago it was for one purpose. GT-5. I played the demo's of gt-5 and prologue and now they will not have any of my money. Their system works in reverse. Now when they come out with the next gen game this fanboy who would have bought it just on the name alone will not.

Slippery slope to the MMO 'pay to play' model...

[MarcoAtWork]

first it was some small cosmetic DLC (anybody remembers the huge hoopla about the 'horse armor' in Oblivion?) and lately it's starting to become a 'pay if you want the full experience' with 0-day DLC, with assets sometimes already present on the game media.

It's pretty obvious that the games industry is envying the MMO business model where customers pay as long as they play (and wish they had done so a lot earlier) and this 'paid beta access' program seems just like another step in that direction.

Nowadays not being internet connected on your gaming PC is pretty much unheard of (and with more and more games with net-based DRM impossible), the only people who would regularly play disconnected would probably be laptop users, but I guess they are not big enough of a market to stop this kind of monetization.

Re:EA as a comedian

[santax]

Wait until the next Mass Effect or Dragon Age comes along. Release the 'demo' 2 weeks before the full game... Make sure the buyers of the demo can transfer their character to the full game and you just pleased a whole lot of people who really really really want to be the first to play the game. But: I don't get it either and yet I buy every darn car-pack for Forca 3 that comes out.

They already do it, pretty much

[shutdown -p now]

Consider Battlefield: Bad Company 2. A beta was available on Steam more than a month before game release, but you could only access it by pre-purchasing the game. There is a small step from that to splitting the cost between beta content, and full game content.

Sounds like a plan

[FlyByPC]

Hey, if it means that I get more interesting games because they're more profitable to make, cool. I'd pay good money for, say, a sneak preview of the next Elder Scrolls V game (or even an official version of Morroblivion complete with quests). Just please don't make it an online game; that would ruin it.

Re:Paid Beta Program?

[NeutronCowboy]

.... where they're redefining what a demo means. In my world - and everyone's world that I can think of - a demo is a short version of a full game that gives you an idea of controls, atmosphere, design and game type (with notable exception Brutal Legend, that completely failed to indicate its RTS nature). 4 hours of a game - let's say, RE5 - is about 1, maybe 2 levels in a full game. So I get to pay $10 for a game that completely fails to show me the full range of capabilities of a character, a satisfying story arc, and which might not even be finished??

Fuck you, EA. I'm not going to be suckered into paying for what sounds suspiciously like a beta program.