The Witcher 3 Demo

[whiplash27]

Worth reading Game demos can cut game sales in half.

All that tells me is that DICE cares more about marketing the game rather than making a good game. I think that what they said is half bs. To me it's more that people try out the demo and don't like it and therefore don't buy it. Whereas when you don't provide the demo, the person goes into the game blindly and therefore buys into the hype and realizes that the game sucks after the fact and regrets the purchase. However, Dice/EA already has the customer's money so they don't care.

That's almost like an As Seen On TV product. The commercial makes it look so great, but once you buy it you realize how bad it is. If you could have tried it for a week prior to buying it then you would have never spent the money.

 

[spacehamsterZH]

simply because I can name a lot of demos that actually made me purchase the full game. There were a few of them that put me off certain games but it's really a minority. I do enjoy demos and like trying them out

That's exactly what I was thinking when I saw the DICE video we're probably talking about here - I can honestly name more games that I bought because of demos than the other way around. There are so many games that I only bought because I d/led the demo one day when I was bored and farting around online. It's just this typical corporate attitude where they basically think their relationship with their customers consists of tricking them into giving them money.

 

[volsung]

Demos decrease game sales? That is one of the most disparate and naive conclusions I've heard in a long time. Of course, that's PR people talking.

There is no proven CAUSAL relationship between demos and bad sales. There IS a correlation, but one doesn't cause the other.* The truth behind it is evident to some readers, if anyone bothered to see the comments on that Destructoid link. Most games nowadays suck, and when people get the chance to actually try them before buying they realize it's not worth wasting their money on such a pile of garbage.

With the quality of their work, a TW3 demo would actually boost sales. It would probably be more fun and engaging than most other full games. I'm not saying a demo *is* necessary. They should focus on creating the actual game. But I wouldn't mind walking around a mini cave or dungeon or forest clearing, feeling the controls and testing my current system.

* There is also a correlation between the rise in global temperature and the decrease of pirates since the 18th century. But of course one didn't cause the other.

 

[whysogreedy]

Or maybe they make '52 and a half' an actual demo?

 

[Mystril]

Actually it's proven scientifically that demos are decreasing sales of the games. So you pay money to make a demo that decrease your sales - bad deal. />/>

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=deEiRLqaiyM

His arguments on the whole demo thing is pretty much what I would say to what you just wrote...

Edit: And that was incredibly bad english, sorry I will rephrase:

"proven scientifically that demos are decreasing sales of the games..." please do open that video and listen to what Totalbiscuit has to say, which is more or less MY opinion on the matter too.

 

[Corylea.723]

TW1 used to have a demo -- the demo included most of Chapter 1. I thought Chapter 1 was a great introduction to the world and the story and gave players enough of the game to give them a sense of what the game would be like. An arena demo would make the game look as if it were 100% combat, 0% story, which is NOT what the Witcher games are like.

Finding the right size for a demo is a puzzle, especially for story-heavy games like the ones CDPR excels in. Give too little, and players don't get a good sense of what the game will be like. Give too much, and unless your game is truly excellent, players with short attention spans will get bored and figure that they've played enough of that game, anyway.

 

[WynbleiddofRivia]

I have been a great fan of the witcher since i laid eyes the first time on the witcher 1 after reading the books, many times, and i think tihs idea of the demo is not right. Just release the full game and then as do always: patch and correct. Do not relay too much on others opinions, your story your rules. I will gladly pay more than 120 euros for the collectors edition because i know you will do a fantastic job as you did before with the previous witcher games, they are perfect.
Keep the good work.

 

[Aver]

All that tells me is that DICE cares more about marketing the game rather than making a good game.

This is not that DICE. It's not EA DICE from Sweeden. This is D.I.C.E. Summit. It is Video Games conference for video games developers and executives.

About demos - for example, I'm pretty sure that DA2 would have way more sales if they wouldn't release a demo.

I'm not saying that demos are bad thing as gamer. I'm saying that from business perspective it's not as good as it seems.

 

[daddy300]

D.I.C.E is more qualified then almost anyone else to say demos are useless. They released 30+ games since 90's not 2 or 3. They lost and gained 100's of millions of dollars. If they say some business strategy doesn't work I am pretty sure they know what they are talking about.

I am convinced that AAA games like Elder Scrolls or Uncharted franchises are recognized enough and don't need to risk anything by creating demos only to lose percentage of pre-orders and early opinions before first reviews hit the internet which are very important as well from business point of view.

I changed my mind on this whole subject and I agree with Jesse Schell "bold" statement.

 

[dragonbird]

Making a simplistic correlation between game sales and whether or not there was a demo is bad stats. Schell may have had other statistics to back up that claim, statistics that he didn't share with the audience, but otherwise I'm calling BS on this.

Maybe the type of developer who releases demos tends to fall into a category who makes games for niche markets that have fewer sales. Maybe developers who release demos don't put enough effort into them, and the result is bad PR instead of good. I'm sure there are a lot of other factors that would influence the stats.

But I do see a strong motive for someone who works for a company that DOESN'T make demos to stand up in front of an audience to try to persuade other developers that making demos is a bad idea.

 

[Agent_Blue]

But I do see a strong motive for someone who works for a company that DOESN'T make demos to stand up in front of an audience to try to persuade other developers that making demos is a bad idea.

Ouch.

Well, the conundrum is this. If the demo is but an arena, then it's no showcase at all of an Open world RPG of this magnitude. If it's bigger, say, a small portion of the world with all systems beside combat operational but without any plot, then it doesn't really do justice to a story driven RPG, does it? Now, if they demo a small section of the world with the respective plot, frankly I don't want to play it.

Bethesda put out a 3 part video. Skyrim sold like muffins out of the oven. There just might be a correlation there, somewhere, somehow.

 

[dragonbird]

Ouch.

Well, the conundrum is this. If the demo is but an arena, then it's no showcase at all of an Open world RPG of this magnitude. If it's bigger, say, a small portion of the world with all systems beside combat operational but without any plot, then it doesn't really do justice to a story driven RPG, does it? Now, if they demo a small section of the world with the respective plot, frankly I don't want to play it.

Bethesda put out a 3 part video. Skyrim sold like muffins out of the oven. There just might be a correlation there, somewhere, somehow.

I agree.

Personal view - for this type of game (stand-alone, story-driven RPG), a demo well before the launch is probably not a good use of resources, and trailers ARE better. But a "surprise" unannounced demo version at the same time as the game is launched, or a few days in advance, would be good for the consumers and would, I'd have thought (with no evidence to back me up), increase sales. As long as the game is good - if a developer is planning to launch a crappy game full of bugs, then it's probably in their best interest NOT to have a demo.

 

[zinux]

D.I.C.E is more qualified then almost anyone else to say demos are useless.

Way to not read posts. Developer-DICE =/= DICE-we-are-talking-about. It's in the post above you for Christ's sake.

 

[Agent_Blue]

I agree.

Personal view - for this type of game (stand-alone, story-driven RPG), a demo well before the launch is probably not a good use of resources, and trailers ARE better. But a "surprise" unannounced demo version at the same time as the game is launched, or a few days in advance, would be good for the consumers and would, I'd have thought (with no evidence to back me up), increase sales. As long as the game is good - if a developer is planning to launch a crappy game full of bugs, then it's probably in their best interest NOT to have a demo. />

I hadn't thought about that. A day 1 demo might be an interesting move.
On the other hand, I can guarantee dozens of 1080p playthroughs on Youtube, day 1 as well.

 

[FoggyFishburne]

I'd love to see a demo but at the same time not. I could list a bunch of pros and cons but most people have already summed them up. I'll add this though:

I don't want a demo because I want that first moment when I start playing a brand new game, untainted. If I've already played a demo of it, I'm going to have expectations. And that early sneak peak isn't worth the gratifying satisfaction of when I start playing the entire game without any knowledge of what I'm getting into.

That said, the ME3 demo was actually kinda cool. It featured both singleplayer and multiplayer and I ended up playing A LOT of multiplayer in order to hone my skills and get acquainted to the combat system. That way, when the game came out, I'd be ready for anything that was thrown at me

So yeah. I'm a bit mixed. I'm not demanding a demo, probably won't play the singleplayer if they do release one. However, if the demo ends up being the new arena mode, then baby sign me up. I'm gonna play the shit out of it!

 

[Nex3t]

First of all, don't take my answer to this topic as official information about The Witcher 3 demo - it's way too early to say anything. But going back to your post, this is something I can't agree with (even if the results are documented), simply because I can name a lot of demos that actually made me purchase the full game. There were a few of them that put me off certain games but it's really a minority. I do enjoy demos and like trying them out

Agree, there was a time, some 15 years ago, when demos was all i had, i lived in a very very small town in Mexican coast and it for some strange reason, there was a store where i used to buy some pc magazines which came all the way from spain (they took like 9 months to reach my place) and they came with a cd, so, i tried every demo in the cd, and so i could try amazin games like Deus Ex, System shock, Age of wonders and, most of all, the Heroes of might an magic 3 demo, which, i have to say, i played for like 2 years, again and again... so, my point is, i have had glorious times with demos, really like them and i really want to try a Witcher 3 demo if it comes out sometime in the future

 

[username_2064020]

Actually it's proven scientifically that demos are decreasing sales of the games. So you pay money to make a demo that decrease your sales - bad deal. />

What it's been proved is that demos of bad games decrease sales and pretty much the opposite happens when your product is actually good.

 

[daddy300]

What it's been proved is that demos of bad games decrease sales and pretty much the opposite happens when your product is actually good.

DA2 had a good demo, then I bought the game and it ended up being crap. Haven;t played any demo since.
If I had my own game coming out and my own savings at stake I would definitely spend more on marketing rather hope and prey my demo will convince those 2000 teenagers to buy my game.

 

[Gilrond-i-Virdan]

Demos can serve a good purpose - one can actually test the game on given hardware / platform and etc. before buying it. For example to try a Windows game in Wine on Linux - demo is a good candidate, especially if the game is very new and no one submitted Wine reports about it yet. Not that I mind buying Witcher 3 anyway, but giving a thorough test to a demo would make it much better. So it's always good to see developers caring about their potential users with releasing demo versions (which is not that widespread). I don't agree with the idea that demos can decrease sales. And if someone really worries about that - let them make the demo short, but they should include key engine aspects there, so users would be able to actually see if their system is up to the task.

 

[Frontovika.376]

Demos are definitely a double-edged sword for sales. On one hand, it allows the player to give the game a try and evaluate how well it runs before committing to a full purchase. If it fails to meet their expectations, then obviously they wouldn't buy it.

Publishers simply don't want to take that risk as they're worried about the latter. But if gamers aren't given the opportunity to demo a game, then it's highly unlikely they'd purchase it at all. Theoretically, they could just play the game at a friend's place to come to a conclusion - so publishers shouldn't worry about releasing a demo.