I'm sure the demo was probably on the front burner at one time (if you look at Ken Levine's expression in Gamespot's 22min preview you can tell he's looking for words other than 'no.') But I think after they committed to a firm release date, they wound up with more polish-work to do, and naturally demo plans would have taken an immediate back-burner position rather than risking the delay of the shipped product -- we all know how 'understanding' the gaming community is over 11th-hour delays ;-) If you are going to put someone off, the easiest crowd to ditch is the ones clamoring for the pre-release demo -- most of which have an on-the-fence stance on the game. Better to appease the ones foaming at the mouth with their $60 US in hand... I would have enjoyed a pre-release demo but merely as a temporary 'chill' plasmid (if you will) prior to release.
All I can say is after soooo many years developing, I would be really sympathetic to GSC if it is not received well. Sometimes you have to give a game marks simply on their persistence to complete it!
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