Study Claims Demos Are Bad for Game Sales

A study has been published that claims that releasing a demo for a game actually hurts its sales. They claim that trailers are the best way to push a game and point to the most successful games not having demos.

They even rigged up a fancy graph to try and prove their point.

We, however, don't believe this for a minute.

PS3 Sales

360 Sales

Here we see that sales are clearly higher for games that only released trailers, but let's think about this for a minute.

Two of the highest selling games last year were Halo 3 and Call of Duty 4, both of which this group claims had no demo. However, both of these games had multiplayer betas. Those could basically be considered "exclusive demos".

BioShock had a demo and went on to sell a whole mess of copies. It appears that good games sell well. A lot of bad games get demos and that could very well hurt their sales because gamers get to try them and realize that they are bad. Without a demo, they might be tricked into buying something that looks good, but actually sucks.

These researchers should re-focus their study to only deal with bad games.

http://www.g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/684518/Study_Claims_Demos_Are_Bad_for_Game_Sales.html?utm_source=g4tv&utm_medium=rssfeeds&utm_campaign=TheFeed

I could believe it

SITUATION 1 - "Played the demo, not interested"

SITUATION 2 - "CRAP, i bought this game and it sucks! they should have made a demo! "

Makes sense. Most games aren't worth $60.PBSnipes

LOL, agreed!

Very few demo's have ever made me purchase a game I would not have otherwise. But I have played a lot of demo's that insured I would not buy a game I may have tried.

Very few demo's have ever made me purchase a game I would not have otherwise. But I have played a lot of demo's that insured I would not buy a game I may have tried.

Coyo7e

Yeah, I agree. The only positive demo I've ever played is Bioshock.Shazenab

Same. The demo grabbed me. I had not been anticipating that game at all. I am glad, too. Seems a lot of the gripes people had with the game were based off really high expectations, of witch I had none.

That's probably true... however, it doesn't effect us because we're not making money on the games. If a game got a perfect review and I played the demo and it sucked I wouldn't go out and buy it... on the other hand if there was no demo I might be inclined to drop the money on it out of impulse.

It's good for us that there are demos, but bad for the devs/publishers... I wouldn't be surprised if we don't see as many of them next gen.

Yeah, I agree. The only positive demo I've ever played is Bioshock.Shazenab

Even if Crackdown isn't your type of game, you have to realize how great of a demo it put out too. Bioshock and Crackdown were probably the best demos this gen so far. Bioshock you really got a feel for the setting and it made you want to find out more. Crackdown on the other hand did it differently by letting you get a huge chunk of only messing with Gameplay features, it didn't let you do any part of the story however like most demos. You got to try everything in Crackdown demo that you would have access to in the retail game with a limited time frame. More games need to do what Bioshock and Crackdown did. Either set it up where you have to find more or let the user get a full understanding for the gameplay mechanics.

interesting

maybe they should make better demos

the 360 Bioshock demo is one of the best i've played .. i was already desperate for the game, but the demo didn't let me down

it was like a teaser for me, but would have definately helped sell copies

No, bad demos are bad for game sales. If you know your game sucks, why put out a demo? I'm looking at you Hour of Victory. A great demo can make a game that is very little known to the mainstream like Bioshock and make it a certified hit. If devs make better games, they have a better chance of selling well. Doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out.JayPee89

Of course they're going to affect sales, but companies would have stopped making them if there wasn't a significant redeeming advantage.

It should be noted that the Blacksite:Area 51 demo was pretty awesome, but that didn't help sales or reviews.

I agree. Sometimes you don't even gotta the full game, the demo is just fine.

No, bad demos are bad for game sales. If you know your game sucks, why put out a demo? I'm looking at you Hour of Victory. A great demo can make a game that is very little known to the mainstream like Bioshock and make it a certified hit. If devs make better games, they have a better chance of selling well. Doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out.JayPee89

Really, Demo's are good for sales if the game dosent suck. Look at turok and conan, If I made a game that sucked as bad as those I would not reasease demos, just touched up screen shots.

[QUOTE="Shazenab"]Yeah, I agree. The only positive demo I've ever played is Bioshock.Coyo7e

Same. The demo grabbed me. I had not been anticipating that game at all. I am glad, too. Seems a lot of the gripes people had with the game were based off really high expectations, of witch I had none.

for me crysis was a pretty good demo, just because it was nice and long and gave a real taste of the actual gameplay. Also, you can make custom maps, for the demo!!! Crazy!!!!

At least the crappy sales inform devs they need to get their act together.

Crysis demo made me have second thoughts. And in the end, I didn't buy the full the game.

Bioshock demo definitely influenced my purchase decision in a positive way. And if it weren't for the first Devil May Cry demo I wouldn't have been into the series.

Call of Duty 4 demo was also a good call on EA's part.

so they want you to buy thier crapy games instead of testing them out first? thats kinda putting the screws to the gamers imo. if you want your game to sell good, make it a damn good game. if you cant do that, then shut down your cheap studio.

[QUOTE="PBSnipes"]Makes sense. Most games aren't worth $60.daytona_178

LOL, agreed!

Oh and I still can't thank you enough daytona :P