Comic for Monday 6/22 (Early High Res)
I'd be super interested to know what the industry's pre-order numbers look like over the past decade, and how presales have been trending overall. I know that, personally, I used to be incredibly guilty of pre-ordering games. I'd get caught up in the hype, in securing the preorder bonuses, telling myself "I definitely want to play that game, so why not just order it now?"
I started doing that drastically less within the past few years, and in factI can't even recall the last game I pre-ordered. Spider-man for the PS4, perhaps, and that was "pre-ordered" about 48 hours before release. I feel like the emphasis on pre-orders has declined as well a bit over the past couple of years... or am I just getting better at tuning it out? I know for sure the practice is out of favor with the vocal contingent, but how does that translate to actual sales? Are pre-orders still a big thing amongst the silent majority, or have they all felt burned too many times as well by buggy, patch-starved launches?
I was shocked this past week to find that, when I went to consider purchasing Desperados 3 on Steam, that there was an option to download a demo. I feel like that's such a rarity these days that I did a double take to make sure it wasn't some oddly-worded earlier-access nonsense.
Suffice to say, I downloaded the demo, loved it (incredible stealth gameplay, no surprise given the Shadow Tactics pedigree), and purchased the full title. I understand why demos are problematic for developers; you either have to showcase the slower, potentially duller early 'tutorial' levels, or throw the player into a more exciting later game section with no idea how the mechanics work. OR, you custom-craft a demo experience to showcase what the meat of your game is really like, but that costs precious development hours that the game proper needs.
Still, it's hard not to wonder if demos kept some developers... I don't know, more "honest," for lack of a better word? Obviously it's a lot less work to splice together a trailer of the juiciest gameplay, and a lot easier that way to avoid showing bugs, or general half-assery.
Comments (10)
Honestly, a Demo can include anything at all up to the end, pretty much. I mean even making 50% of the game a Demo....if the game is good enough, people are still gonna buy the other half. I think the main reason for not releasing Demos is simply because if people play a game they might actually NOT like it and not buy it, and with so many low quality games coming out these days it's hardly a surprise they don't want to lose money on them.
I don't know... with the advent of streaming, I feel demos are largely unnecessary. If people are unsure about a game, they can watch a streamer play it for a bit.
That is kind of like a demo in my book, but then again that is only voor PC titels
Doesn't steam have like a under 10 hours playing, money back kind of an arrangement. Read about it somewhere but never needed it. I generally only buy 1 year old games to save some money, so pre-sales has never been my thing
You have to have purchased it within the last 2 weeks, and have less than 2 hours played.
Funny, just had that kind of conversation with my 9 year old this morning. Talking about old times, buying a 'zine to read tests and discover this month' s demo. PC gamer since 1990 etc... those were the days. Considering how dev tools and experience got better in 30 years, more modular and often mod-oriented from day one, I'm surprised demos aren't more frequent. That said, in her case, playing on a 2DS, there ARE actually demos and lots of those, so she has the joy of experiencing it. Wish we had the same on Steam and not some shitty early-access that'll end up dying 50% of the time or just never reach a satisfying gaming experience on release. Though sometimes (admittedly rarely) it does work (Wreckfest for example). Haven't got any time playing mainstream games anyway, just started simming again on DCS... being part of the old gamers-with-a-HOTAS I'm not in a meaningful demographic anyway :P
I rarely preorder a game with few exceptions. Cyberpunk 2077 and the upcoming Baldur's Gate 3. I've seen enough from both to make it worth it.
Same here on both titles. The last title before that was Deus Ex: Human Revolution, and that only because there was the Tong mission, which you could only get by pre-ordering from GameStop (that's how it was marketed, anyway). Otherwise, I stay far away from any pre-order nonsense.
I pre-ordered a lot on Amazon over the past decade to lock in their 20% discount ($48 launch price). I will say the Switch has made me lean more to the digital spectrum, because 1) Nindies, 2) Not having to deal with cartridges on the go. The 825 GB - 1 TB SSD limits on the next gen give me pause as to whether I can fit my whole library... But if the loading times are better I might go digital. It's VERY rarely (~once per generation) I actually go trade in a game at Gamestop... Have to hate it week one.
I'll still pre-order games I know I intend to play, mostly because these things are hyped so early before release and I'm too lazy to keep track of what's coming out when. I'll pre-order when I hear about the game; if I start hearing bad things about it as it gets closer to release, I might reconsider and cancel my pre-order.