Trine has a nice demo, it's somewhat new.
So does Torchlight 2.

I guess the demo isn't totally dead but it is obviously on life support.

I'd like demos more to know how well the game would run on my setup, than figuring out whether I'll like the game.

I think I nowadays feel less need for the latter due to internet, and most importantly, Youtube (gameplay videos). But they still don't tell how well the game would run on my system, any performance or compatibility issues etc.

So basically I would be fine if there was some separate technology demo for the game or bunch of games which would verify that the game will run fine for me. It doesn't necessarily have to have actual gameplay from the actual game.

One option that Steam uses are the limited "free weekends" where you can play some full game for a limited time. That helps with both objectives, but the problems with that is:

- Obviously it needs DRM so that the user can be denied access to the game after the free weekend

- These free weekends seem to be quite rare, and there seem to be usually only one or few games playable. So it isn't a good way to demo many games in your own schedule.

With enough DRM, you could set up a system where you can play any game you want, but only for e.g. half an hour. I think OnLive (the streaming game service) has something like this, I remember playing a bunch of games for free on them to see whether I like them, like STALKER, Space Pirates and Zombies etc.

Even though I don't like it, I understand the reasons for not offering demos. But just to act as a counterbalance to the members who said they hardly ever buy a game after trying the demo, I'd like to say that during the past years I have bought several great games at full price only on account of my experience with the demos and I wouldn't have risked spending that money on them otherwise (e.g. Fortune Summoners, Knights of the Chalice, Driftmoon, To the Moon, Defender's Quest etc.).

True, I've also bought at least one title at full price without trying it and ending up regretting my purchase afterwards, and I resisted the urge to buy a few titles after the demos made me realize I didn't really like them, but most of the latter were cheap indie games from bundles that I wouldn't have paid a lot for anyway. In my case, the demos did a good job to convince me to buy games that I was interested in, but the prices of which were too high for me to take risks.

This might be irrelevant for most serious gamers, but quite a few games won't even run on my low-end rig and before I spend money on something, I'd like to make sure that I will actually be able to use it, especially since you can't return digital downloads. I can't judge that by looking at screenshots or gameplay footage, as even retro-style indie games are often more demanding than they look like nowadays, and system requirements info gets more and more vague, inaccurate and confusing. For me, watching gameplay videos and reading reviews is a good way to check whether something looks like my kind of game, but it's not informative enough to decide whether it will actually run on my rig and whether I will enjoy playing it myself.

Most of the games are bug-ridden beta versions sold as final product these days, and you expect them to spend time on making demos? These resources are spent on making day-one DLCs, game over man.

That's the thing, even if they impress you with the demo AND their game is good, it doesn't statistically make you more likely to buy it. Feel free to watch the episode if you'd like to speak about it, they've already deconstructed most of the arguments you're going to make if you don't.

http://www.penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/demo-daze


Sales data, over and over again, has shown that demos don't increase sales. I suppose you can go ahead and blame the entire industry for only making "bad" demos, but that's just sticking your fingers in your ears to ignore reality. Demos cost time and money that actually does detract from what you get in the final game (unlike most day 1 DLC that people hate on for this but don't typically have the same effect). If they don't increase sales it's insane to want video game companies to cut off their nose to spite their face when the end result doesn't even help you most of the time.

I had a Zelda - Ocarina of Time promo video on VHS...

OH! I remember what was the best way I remember anyone handling demos in terms of a compromise between the consumer and the company. You bought a game and got some demos on the disk. Nintendo did that a few times. Primarily, I remember having some demos on the Ocarina of Time/Master Quest disk that came with WindWaker.

Usually, they were games outside of the genre of the game you bought so it'd be a bit like trying to get you interested in their other games, even if they were outside your regular genre(s).

Since most idiots pre-order whatever the publishers have in the pipe, what would be the point? Yeah guys, flame you all you like, got my asbestos undies just for it. If you pre-order games you are either 1) trying to help a developer or publisher get a game out - usually happens for indies or small companies or 2) an idiot.

Back in the 90's and early 2000 people still got their reviews from glossy magazines and usually they were done right and informed consumers correctly. Now, most reviews are done by creeps like Geoff Keighley. They even help the hype machine in order to drive pre-orders. IGNs J. Chobot was included in friggin ME 3. Why the fuck would they do that?!

In my opinion, RPS still do right by me and so, I take their reviews into account when deciding whether to buy

The first and last game I had on pre-order was TL 2. Luckily for me, it was well worth it.

Edit: case of mistaken identity fixed.

Bingo.

Well, demos aren't bad from a consumer stand point, just from the developer side.

I understand you're saying that there were times where it motivated a purchase from you, I have good memories from demos too: my aunt had a cd with a compilation of PC demos when I was little that I played to death and am currently looking for the games on it, despite not remembering a single title (found Broken Sword 2 and Hocus Pocus), I also had a cd with demos that came with my PS1 and I played everything in there dozens of times, even that shitty Barbie: Explorer, and I bought most games from there.

Maybe you could blame it on being jaded, but that changed lately. Some years ago when I finally got my PS3 connected to the PSN I played every single demo in there, and the only one I ended up buying was Bioshock, everything else I either didn't like or would have bought anyway. Now I usually have my mind made up long prior to a demo and don't even bother playing them anymore.

Not to say I've completely changed, Strike Suit Zero had a few conflicting reviews when it came out and it could really use a demo. I ended up having to pirate it and after playing through the tutorial I happily bought it.

P.S.: Wow! You've played Fortune Summoners? I haven't gotten around to it yet, but have you tried Recettear? It's from the same publisher and it's demo made me immediately buy it.

ain't nobody got time for dat!

Like I said, it also depends on your personal context. Generally, I believe you can expect a game sold for your console to work on your console. That's not the case with PC games, especially not if your PC is not best equipped to run more demanding titles. I mostly buy low to mid price indie games on the PC and seeing that the entry level for selling indie games is assumably much lower than the entry level for AAA and console titles, meaning there's a lot more shovelware, but also seeing that I'm still very curious about them and eager to find hidden gems, it makes sense for me to try them before buying. I buy a lot of games but I usually don't spend much on individual titles, so without the means to try out the more expensive ones, I'd probably have to settle for only buying very cheap and discounted games or bundles.

I had very low framerates in the Recettear demo, so this was actually a case where the demo convinced me not to buy it (at least not yet). ;)

But I suspect I wouldn't love it as much as Fortune Summoners. It's the same publisher, alright, but not the same developer and the gameplay is quite different. So far Fortune Summoners was the only game published by Carpe Fulgur that immediately appealed to me (I guess I have a thing for funny 2D sidescrollers).

Or maybe they dont want to make demo's because the game is really just.... shite (and they want to hide the fact - youtube gameplay videos help these days though) :)

That's it, I believe. Computer gaming purchases have become increasingly digital for a good while, while consoles still have a quite solid share of retail purchases (despite all consoles having sizeable download stores as well).

Downloadable demos on consoles are good for getting a taste of the game before heading off to the (retail) store to buy it, while computer games are more and more often being downloaded anyway (often for very cheap in a sale even), so the demos aren't needed for that "first taste".

As people become increasingly more familiar with downloadable purchases on console, I believe demos will dwindle there as well (or maybe not, depending on whether it's the sale prices or "instant" access that's the key point, I'm willing to bet on the latter though).

*with "instant" being defined as "you can start downloading it right away", not necessarily start playing within the hour.