I just checked Steam and they have 235 demos up right now. Personally, I'd like to see a demo for every game released, if for no other reason than to see how it will run on my pc. But I admit that that's probably too much to ask for. As for developers not releasing demos because they know that it might hurt sales, I don't know. I've certainly not bought games after playing the demo. But I've also been completely surprised by a demo and bought a game that I wouldn't have considered before. So I guess it goes both ways.
[QUOTE="Threesixtyci"][QUOTE="adamosmaki"]Depends on the game publisher As for Crysis Warhead it does use securom and 5 activation limits but fortunately Ea released a revoked tool ( same for Mass effect 1 btw ) so you can install it as many times you want Unless you lost your hard drive or something along those lines. That tool won't release the activations in that instance. Lost your hard drive? Oh, that's easy. Just open up your computer case. It's probably in there. :)
[QUOTE="FarCountry"]Shipping? You mean to tell me that you guys still buy your games in boxes? In the year 2010? That's adorable! mkaliaz
I do buy a lot of Steam games (over 100 on my account), but unfortunately live in WA so they get to hit me with the sales tax. New games are always the most expensive there for me, although I sure love to take advantage of the sales.
Yeah, I think I bought about 10 games during Steam's holiday sale in December. They are my go to for games now because I'm really tired of disks...... and driving through a blizzard to visit Best Buy. As for Newegg not getting any love, that's just not true! I can't remember the last time I bought computer hardware from anyone else. Now if they would just expand their downloadable games selection.......
Well it's a generally accepted business practice in the video games industry to take a loss on the hardware side of a console to make money on the software side. Without clear data on software sales, and more importantly, what companies like Microsoft and Sony make from those software sales, it becomes really difficult to declare success or failure for those consoles and the company divisions that represent them. And the fact that both Microsoft and Sony have very large coffers to pull money from to support such a loss leader for a very long time if they wish, we may never know if their consoles are in trouble until they tell us.... which they aren't likely to do due to PR issues alone. We'll have to wait until the fiscal year reports are released to know anything for sure and even then, numbers can be shifted around pretty easily in multi-billion dollar companies to make losses look like gains, or at very least less of a loss. One thing seems to be certain at least: Nintendo doesn't seem to have any worries. I would agree with the OP about one thing; pc gaming isn't going to die. And neither is console gaming imo. They are both just doing what they always do - changing. It's just a question of whether that change is for better or worse.
For the week of February 6th, 2010 Global software totals. Nintendo Wii - 2,673,793 Xbox 360 - 1,500,217 PS3 - 1,565,678 Nintendo DS - 1,523,332 PSP - 726,640 PS2 - 263,243 Total console software sales - 8,252,903 source: http://www.vgchartz.com/weekly.php While I've certainly seen higher numbers, I wouldn't exactly say that the consoles are hurting. Sorry I couldn't find any PC sales data for that week.
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