If console can have them on their digital stores, why doesn't pc?

I wrote to a developer recently to thank them for their demo version, and to be clear that it was effective.

I'd imagined their game was a bit too simple for me to enjoy, but I tried the demo with my kid anyway. My wife was super intrigued and took over for me. It wasn't long before we were all enthusiastic and I bought both the game and its sequel. Without the demo, I certainly would have passed on the games.

The devs were grateful for the feedback. So let devs know when their demos are successful, and they'll continue the practice.

For the curious, it was Hero of The Kingdom:
http://www.shinyloot.com/hero-of-the-kingdom

Charming game. Demo available on the page linked above.

There is that benchmark thingy for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Call of Pripyat that does not offer any gameplay but lets you test your computer and shows a little something about the game. Now that is much better than nothing.

I agree on everything you wrote. Since there's not much left to add to your well-formulated contribution, I will just state that I probably would not have started to play games on PC, if the circumstances back then were the same as they are now. Trying demos out for free was a necessary means to experiment and learn about my personal gaming preferences, what different genres were about or what control schemes are suitable to use for keyboard and mouse, for me, who started playing on the original Playstation. Now that I developed a certain taste and have set priorities of what I expect from a game, this isn't that much of an issue anymore, but an issue, still.

I would also like to point out that, if you only had one level to try out in a demo, you were much more encouraged to look for small details, do every sidemission and speak with every NPC as opposed to getting dragged through a game by script designers(that many games thrive for today).
Maybe my playing behaviour changed over time, but I felt demos back then were more fleshed out than the typical 10-minute-gameplay-video on YouTube.
Demos allowed for choosing your own pace, seeing many little ideas despite or even because of smaller "games" and environments(=less playtime). They allowed to participate, not passively watching, but actively exploring the gaming universe and the unlimited opportunities it provides, making the evolving of your favourite game genre endlessly more exciting, while at the same time ecouraged you to take a step into other, unknown or disliked genres, without taking too much risks.

And money and availability are of course of importance. Demos were more and earlier available than their complete counterparts. Making you pay for trying something out makes the whole trying part useless, because originally you tested something to learn if it's good enough to put money down. No income provided, good luck playing games and learning about what to care and look for in 2015!

Then the disappointment effect:
If you paid 60$/€ for a game you could not try out beforehand, that you did not enjoy much, because it did not run well, looked well, played well or kept its promises, because you happen to have no friend to show or rent you the game in question:
I don't want to know how many people turned to more dubious methods of aquiring games or turned away from gaming as a whole because of this. Even if you could get your money back, that's not so easily done with time or excitement.

If even the "demo-ing" of a game you are interested in costs you money, you are more hesistant to make a buying decision, but you also have to convince yourself to overcome your doubts first. Given you even have the money to do so.
And this is where it is all wrong:
It's not your job to convince yourself, it's theirs.
You shouldn't wave away your doubts about a game wholly on your own, they should give you the means to properly deconstruct them by making a suitable/representative demo availalabe to see for yourself that you can't go wrong with this purchase of their product.

Now, that's more text than expected. Though I should have known better. Thank you for bearing with me.

Midoryu

Edit 1 - two minutes later: Fixed conjugation.

As I see there are only two ways at the moment:
1.) Torrent the game and buy it if you like it.
2.) Buy the game and ask refund if you dont like it.

The first raises moral questions, and the second is problematic many times.

I recall Extra Credits did a video on this very topic, how the demo usually makes little difference for the game's final sales numbers, and often was bad for sales.

Honestly i'd love to see more demos available; Although how the demo is executed is questionable. For Xbox Arcade games, you either get a slice of the game (if it's pretty big) or you get the whole game but it limits you unless you've purchased the license for the game. Blood Rayne Betrayal and Hoard does this as well which is annoying when trying to transfer a game to another computer avoiding the steam client...

One of the biggest issues with the devs making a demo, usually involves them either maintaining two versions (the give-away portion and the game) or making the demo far superior to the actual game, much like Aliens Colonial Marines did. While really good games with bad demos will sell poorly, and good games didn't need demos really to sell much.

I do dearly miss the shareware model, where the first third or so of a game was free. Much like Hexen, Doom, Wolfenstein 3D. Although i only played the demos as a child since i had no money really to spare to games, so there's that aspect too...

Demos hurt sales.

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/game-demos-can-hurt-sales-suggests-research/1100-6410863/

http://kotaku.com/demos-are-great-for-gamers-not-so-great-for-game-sales-608603895

Sure it does. Demo's also give people an idea if a game is any good (or if they'd like the game) instead of buying it sight unseen.

While I don't think they should be a requirement, I believe they should be a encouraged. When possible, I try to use Let's Plays to get an idea if it's a game I would like. I suppose I could also use Steam's return policy to demo games and buy it here, but not sure if it's worth the trouble

Shoot, I remember a time I couldn't afford games for a bit and would use the game demos to get my fix.

There's no need for demos. You can buy any game you want on Steam and get it refunded within two weeks as long as you played less than 2 hours.

(Okay, okay, it's not really as good because you have to pay something up front, but it's still a solid solution that applies to pretty much any game and doesn't require special versions.)

What ? we don't need demos when we have TotalBiscuit, Giant Bomb and AngryJoe.
Just buy whatever they like, that's how modern gaming works.

Seems legit.

For that I really like the Steam way of having a two hour testing period. And if I understand you correctly that's exactly what you want. After all the best demo for a product is ... ... the product itself. So if Steam is an option for you I would try that out.

I at least admire the idea.

That's not proven. Both articles are about the same thing and if you would have read them carefully you would know that they do not propose that demos hurt sales because it also may be that other factors are playing a role when deciding not to produce a demo. It simply is not clear if there is a bias of big productions to simply skip the demo.

Games with demos selling less copies does indeed not mean that demos hurt sales. Sorry. If the numbers in the links mean anything than that not having a demo doesn't hurt your sales if only you have a good product and a big advertisement budget.

Actually if it were true than Steam should have faced a massive loss after introducing the two hour testing period. According to some sources the return rates are only as low as 3% or lower, so nothing really changed. So I don't even believe in it (that demos would hurt sales).

If you notice, most games come out a buggy mess and devs are busy improving the game to push out deadlines to bother to create demos.

After the word of mouth comes out that the game is great, there is no need for demo.

If the word of mouth comes out that the game stinks, the devs are in panic mode to improve their game rather then concern with demos. Or just give the game up, then why care for demo?

While I don't really want to agree, I do see a bit of truth in the statement. Of the PC game reviewers, I really only watch TotalBiscuit and LGR. Not in order to see what games they enjoy, but because I feel they offer rather decent reviews - every once in a while I think a game looks interesting enough to purchase when they completely tear it apart.