Try before you buy

Today's blog is all about demos. I remember the old days, the good days, when I'd go to the corner shop or Newsagents and spend my entire weeks pocket money on a magazine. For the most part I didn't read the magazine at all, I bought it for one thing - the ps1 demo disc. Several little playable snippets of games that were to be coming out soon. As I grew up I noticed these discs became less prominent, and I realise now that demos in general are less prominent within the gaming industry.

This confused me a little but admittedly I can see the sense in it - think of how many games you've bought in the past that have been either not what you expected them to be or just utter shite that you wouldn't waste 5 minutes even bothering with. However, it could go the other way; you could demo a game and that demo could push you to eagerly awaiting a release date and have you queueing outside your nearest Gamestation 'til some ungodly hour in the morning so you can fork out your hard earned cash for it. So, are demos a good thing? A bad thing? Or just.. demos.

For the consumer

For you and me, the average (viewtiful) Joe, game demos are undoubtedly a good thing. What could be better than having the opportunity to test a game before you buy it. A game that you either are unsure of, think is going to be awesome, or maybe a game you've never seen or heard of at all. Expectations can be raised, lowered and created from simply trying out a sample of the game. Think of it as tasting a cake before you commit to buying it, it lets you know what you're letting yourself in for.
Recently, the Asura's Wrath demo hit the PSN (SEN?) store. Out of sheer boredom alone I decided to download it and was very pleasantly surprised. as a result of playing the 10 minute demo which showcased the games gameplay, visuals, a look into the story - I now can't wait for it's release and will definitely be picking it up. Demos get a thumbs up!

For the company 

Now this can go either way. If a games company have made a bad game and a demo is released, everyone could play it, realise its crap and then no one would buy it. From this point of view, demos are bad. However, there's 2 sides to every story, 2 faces to every coin, 2 balls in my pants. Just as a demo can squash any hopes a company has of releasing a blockbuster, it can also catapult a game into peoples must buy list (ala me and Asura's Wrath) and from this point of view, demos are definitely a good thing. AGAIN WITH THE HOWEVER. Now, a different slant.. Not releasing a demo at all is probably the best thing a company can do (in regards to sales). Not releasing a test version of the game to the general public means that they can't be harmed by it. It can't fall short of peoples expectations, it cant show people just how bad your game may be, and it means that people may buy the final version out of curiosity if nothing else. So from a company's perspective, there's no real reason to release a demo.

The final verdict
My stand on this one is simple ladies and gents, i'm not a games producer and quite frankly if a game is awful I want to know so i dont waste any money on it. Demos are a good thing, companies should be good to us, the gaming masses, and more demos should be released. Also, everyone should go and download the Asura's Wrath demo free from the PSN store right now - if for no other reason than to see the sheer SIZE of one of the enemies.