Video game demos are the unsung heroes of video games, but I am getting increasingly worried about their future in the gaming sphere. Triple-A titles in the past have slowly been omitting video game demos from their rollout plan, and while they’ve still been successful, I hope that they aren’t setting an example for the industry. Sure, not everyone plays video game demos these days (me included), but I firmly believe the option to play video game demos should stay forever, and I’m here to tell you why.
Try Before You Buy
Buyer beware, not every game looks as good as it does in the gameplay trailers and video demonstrations (we’re looking at you, Ubisoft). Thankfully, we have video game Demos.
Video game demos are just that, they’re demos made for the player to take out on a test drive. Let’s face it, games these days aren’t getting any cheaper. Sure, you could always just sign up for a PlayStation Plus or Xbox Game Pass membership, but even those are getting overpriced quickly. The higher the price tag, the bigger the commitment it is for everyone to purchase video games, and who would want to spend money on a game they aren’t sure they like yet?
This is where video game demos should come in, giving the players a quick intro to what the game feels and looks like. This lets every player have the opportunity to make more informed decisions about their purchases. Taking a look back at Ubisoft, I bought Watch Dogs back in 2014 with the full expectation that the game would look as sleek as it did back during the E3 showcase. The wave of buyer's remorse hit me as soon as I booted into the game world, all the while wishing I had tried the demo first.
Making Waves
Looking at things from a more positive point of view, video game demos can also help developers convince players that their game is worth buying. It’s worked since they started distributing demo CDs in gaming magazines, and it still works now. Take, for example, the recently released game Clover Pit, a game that looks like Buckshot Roulette and Balatro had a baby. I was already convinced by the aesthetics, but as soon as I got to play the demo, I could not get its hooks off me. This demo is what led to a day 1 purchase of the full game, and I’ve been playing ever since.
Game demos can also be a proof of concept to potential buyers. As often supported by Valve through Steam’s Next Fest, these demos can serve as a way to bring more attention to your game. Small indie studios do not get the same wow effect that bigger studios have, and that means they have to prove the quality of their work through actual gameplay. It also helps that streamers tend to comb through Steam demos and give smaller studios the chance to reach a wider audience. Video game demos are really just free marketing at this point, for both content creators and developers.
Early Access
Looking back at it now, video games aren’t necessarily becoming obsolete. It’s just that the way we know video game demos might start to change. Steam’s Early Access category lets players purchase the game they’re interested in for cheap while it’s still in development. I see this feature as an absolute genius move by Valve because it’s basically a win-win situation for the devs and the players. The players get to play their game early and for much cheaper, and the devs get what is essentially free game testers. But this early testing experience isn’t unique to Valve.
An example of early testing outside of Valve is the arcade testing done by the Tekken team over at Bandai Namco. For years, Bamco has been releasing a 1.0 version of Tekken exclusively to arcades to gauge player feedback and make the necessary changes before doing a full-scale release on consoles. This has been incredibly effective throughout the years and has only changed with the release of Tekken 8, and we all know how that turned out.
My Crazy Idea
In my own perfect world, I would wish that every developer had a batch download of curated demos that I could just download for free and test at my own time. I sincerely believe that packaging upcoming game demos from smaller development companies could help the industry as a whole, the same way comic book companies release a small sampler of comic book issues every now and then. But admittedly, this is a faraway dream, and I do not expect anything from developers.
So, in my own perfect, reasonable world, I simply hope that video game demos never become obsolete. And I hope that triple-A developers keep being creative about their demos.
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