Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Crytek Thinks Free Game Demos Will Soon Be Extinct

Posted by Soulskill on from the not-like-we-could-run-a-crysis-2-demo-anyway dept.

An anonymous reader writes with this quote from Develop: "The CEO of indie studio Crytek has defended EA's divisive 'premium downloadable content' strategy, while also predicting the extinction of free game demos. ... Crytek's co-founder Cevat Yerli said he wasn't sure that a demo of Crysis 2 was going to be released. He said: 'A free demo is a luxury we have in the game industry that we don't have in other industries such as film. Because we've had this free luxury for so long, now there are plans to change this people are complaining about it. The reality is that we might not see any free game demos in the long term. ... Yes it is quite unpopular, but this is a messaging issue. The problem with any new strategy like this is it initially may appear as a blood-hungry, money-grabbing strategy. But I think there is a genuine interest here to give gamers something more than a small demo released for free. Really, what this is, is an attempt to salvage a problem. The industry is still losing a lot of money to piracy as the market becomes more online-based. So it’s encouraging to see strategies outlined to combat this.'"

13 of 379 comments (clear)

  1. really? by leachlife4 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "A free demo is a luxury we have in the game industry that we don't have in other industries such as film" what are trailers? they provide about the same relative amount of the product before paying for it

    1. Re:really? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Exactly. With a trailer you get to watch a bit of the movie, with a demo you get to play a bit of the game. By comparison, game trailers are sort of like a movie trailer where you only get to hear the audio. Demoes aren't a luxury, they're a courtesy.

    2. Re:really? by PopeRatzo · · Score: 5, Funny

      As long as RAZ0R1911 has anything to say about it, we'll still have game demos.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    3. Re:really? by BuCKsWorld · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You're still utilizing the trailer to determine if the movie is worth your time. The main difference is that you're "forced" to experience them at a theater (unless you get there late). I (and many of my friends & colleagues) look up trailers for movies all the time, and we also download game demos from Xbox Live / PSN / Steam. The point of a game demo is (or was, or should be) to build the same type of hype for a game. It gives you a small taste, and hopefully entices you to pay for the entire thing. Some demos really do help a game and get the name out there. Other demos do more harm than good because the game itself isn't that great. This can happen with movies as well.

      I believe the big difference between game demos and movies is that games are both longer than movies and much more expensive for the consumer. If you lost $8 on a movie on a Friday night, it might not be as big of a deal as losing $60+ on a game. Even if the movie sucked, you could still have a decent time overall (making the movie a small part of a larger evening). It's a relatively quick experience. Many people buy games hoping they'll provide much more than 2 hours worth of entertainment. If the game is terrible, paying that larger price seems like even more of a loss.

      Sometimes I'll see a movie if the trailer is bad. I'll almost never buy a game if I didn't enjoy the demo. The more expensive the entertainment, the more critical people are about it and the more stingy they are with their money, at least in my experience.

      -Chris

    4. Re:really? by Opportunist · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Well, given Steam it's pretty easy to get demos almost "pushed" onto you, with their ads and everything. And it has actually happened more than just once that I downloaded the demo for a game that fits into my prefered genre to give it a look, then buy it.

      Of course it can work in the other direction, too. If there hadn't been a demo for Supreme Commander 2, I might have bought it. But with the demo I could already easily determine that the game is as shallow as a puddle (and the reviews support that first impression), so I didn't buy.

      In a nutshell, though, if you (dear studio bosses) are afraid of launching demos of your game, the message that reaches me is that I would not want to buy your game after playing the demo. Either it's just completely unoriginal (SC2, e.g.) or not going to keep me interested for longer than whatever play time the demo offers.

      No demo, no sale. Easy as that. At the very least I will wait until Metacritic and similar pages fill with user reviews. The comparison with movies holds no ounce of water. First of all, I do get movie trailers that at least tell me what I could expect from the movie. And second, I don't spend 60+ bucks on a movie.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    5. Re:really? by PopeRatzo · · Score: 5, Funny

      I wasn't trying to be funny. I buy every game I play beyond the first level, but I download a "demo" before I buy.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
  2. This will insure.. by MatrixManiac · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So now you won't find out our game is crap till you buy it! :p

  3. Let them get rid of free demos by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I love it!

    As an indie game developer, I love the fact that I can be agile while the other guys are big & dumb. I can take risks on my titles. Kill off your free game demos. It just gives me one more tool to be profitable.

    While you are at it, why don't you do any of these creative things. You can have this list for free

    a. Require micropayments to save single player games
    b. Require micropayments to save high scores
    c. Never release free content for your games
    d. Never give your community modding tools
    e. Lock down your artwork and other IP, so 3rd parties cannot make fan sites.

    It will make my job that much easier if you do.

    1. Re:Let them get rid of free demos by blai · · Score: 5, Funny

      f. require payments to exit the game -- that's where the big buck is!

      --
      In soviet Russia, God creates you!
  4. If there's no free demo, there'll be "free" demos. by tlhIngan · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You can't kill the free demo.

    If you try, it turns out people will just obtain their demo any other way where they're not dishing out a single penny. Yes, I'm talking piracy. And they won't bother pirating the $5 demo, they'll pirate the full game, and use that to demo the game.

    And console-only won't save you. All it takes is one person to say "Game XXX sucks". Friends of that guy then say "I heard game XXX sucks". And it then spreads quickly - after all, who's going to pay $5 for a demo of a game that sucks, nevermind buy the full game.

    And all games suck - there is always someone unhappy with it.

  5. Oh shut up by Sycraft-fu · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I really don't like Crytek, they are bitchy to the extreme. They are also the ones who whined that piracy was "killing" Crysis sales. They didn't seem to account for the fact that you needed, as Yhatzee put it, "A hypothetical future computer from space," to play it well. They didn't seem to consider that maybe sales reflect how many people can play the game well, if it doesn't work someone won't buy it. Oh, and it wasn't a very good game either.

    Never mind that it sold a million copies.

    So they can cram it. I think free demos will indeed continue in part because you can't know if a game will work and the publishers fight to keep retailers from taking returns. With movies, you've got a very high chance it works. All you have to do is make sure you buy the right kind of movie, not hard these days. If so, it'll work unless it is damaged, in which case just swap it for a new one.

    Not so with computer games, the media can be fine but there can be an incompatibility. In that case there is no reason someone should be stuck with a game that doesn't run.

    Also games are a much more substantial purchase. $40 is the minimum you tend to see a new title for and $50-60 is more common. As such it is reasonable to want to try out the product a bit more before committing to a purchase. The larger a purchase, the more most people want to examine it.

    But they can do whatever they like. I frankly don't care, they've shown themselves incapable of making games I give a shit about. They look very pretty, but only because they require insane amounts of hardware. In the two I've played (Far Cry and Crysis) the game starts off as a interesting semi-sneaky shooter with some very meh vehicles and then quickly turns in to a crappy monster game. As such I figure they'll keep doing that. If there's no demo, I'll simply give them a miss.

  6. The hubris is amazing by HBI · · Score: 5, Funny

    The process toward another 1983 is astounding, and i'll be ready with the popcorn.

    --
    HBI's Law: Frequency of calling others Nazis is directly correlated with the likelihood of the accuser being Communist.
  7. Piracy? Really? by VoiceInTheDesert · · Score: 5, Insightful

    That's why you think you're losing money, EA? Not the fact that you make shitty games or the fact that you screw over your customers, you think it's pirates that are taking your business away? Reality check: The reason you want to stop offering Free Demos is because too many people are realizing the game is shit and aren't buying it as a result. Nothing to do with "luxury" or "giving the customer more." You don't "give" people more by charging them where there was no charge before. I would have way more respect if EA came out and said it was about money for themselves rather than trying to paint it like they're looking out for the players. The players are last on their mind.