Demos have two excellent effects. The first is obvious: gamers get a chance to try before they buy. The “try” has to match the experience of the “buy” and thus a “cinematic trailer” for a game doesn’t cut it. A playable demo gives a gamer a chance to interact with piece of the finished product. It’s not Early Access and it’s not beta testing. Demos are a piece of an otherwise complete product.
The consequence of this “try before you buy” is gamers become more inclined to spare a few megabytes of disk space off their Xbox One, PS4, or PC to give a new product a chance. Then, if they’re impressed, they’ll be more likely to pull the trigger on a full purchase. Win-win all around.
The second effect is subtler and might not necessarily translate into direct sales – but it’s still important. Demos give players less of an excuse to complain. Demos won’t eliminate negative response to a release; however, they give publishers and developers a chance to say, “This is our product. Here is a free sample. If you don’t like the sample, then don’t buy the product.” Just like that piece of teriyaki chicken from the mall’s Chinese place, if your appetite isn’t piqued you can walk on to Five Guys.
Demos obviously aren’t a panacea. They won’t completely prevent releases like Assassin’s Creed Unity, but nor should they be expected to do so. Demos give players a chance to feel better about buying a game. Providing a complete piece of a game is enticing. It practically begs to be tested. Publishers and devs get a chance to show they care about the players as the audience of their product and not just as a source of revenue.
Now, this doesn’t necessarily apply to publishers that essentially offer demos behind pay-walls. That includes Early Access or beta testing entitlement that comes only with a purchased version of a game. All that does is treat players even more like wads of cash just waiting to be picked up. When The Old Republic entered beta, it was closed – but it was free if you were selected. No download code needed, no proof of purchase required.
Tying in to this is the whole argument of the true purpose of Early Access. Is it just a way for developers and publishers to freely crowdsource beta testers and QA? Do players (and the developers, too) really benefit from buying an incomplete product under the premise of having “influence” over its final development stages? Is an Early Access product representative of what the final game will be? The playable demo bypasses this. You can’t have a demo of a finished product without the finished product. Slicing off thirty minutes of a game for players to try can go a long way to enticing them to buy. Early Access sometimes has the opposite effect.
Right now, demos are still something we get excited about. If the players make themselves heard, demos could become a routine experience. Given the benefits for players and producers alike, this would be a fantastic change for the better.
