The Unlikely Return of the Video Game Demo
The Unlikely Return of the Video Game Demo
22 comments
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The steam 2 hour return window is the new defacto demo for all games.
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It's entirely different, though.
I'm not going to pay to try a game and lean on a refund. I just won't play it at all.
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Fair enough, I do it all the time and so do people in my friend group. There's a new game, it's on sale, I know I buy games on steam regularly, I buy the game, I try it, it doesn't work, it's not fun, something. I return it within the 2-hour window fairly regularly.
In fact, this steam two hour window has been part of game developer philosophy for a while, putting the good content first, so you don't get bored before the 2 hours expire. There's been a fair few reviews where people speculate this was just front-loaded so people don't return it
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If you accidentally go over 2 hours, though, then you're stuck with it.
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They've been back. Indie Steam games have them sometimes. Probably on Epic and GOG too, but who cares about them.
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I think Steam NextFests have been a big part of the prevalence of demos. Before we had those, sure, a few games would have demos, but they wouldn't really gather much attention. NextFests are a good excuse for players to try a bunch of demos (think of the old demo discs that came with gaming magazines) and post about them on social media. This is a great way for smaller games to attract eyes, so now developers are more incentivized to actually produce demos, rather than just neat trailers and screenshots for marketing purposes.
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Epic can go kick rocks, but GoG is actually pretty important. Only one outside of humble bundle that gives DRM free downloads as god intended.
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I remember the good old days of being super excited every time a new PCGamer magazine arrived in the mailbox and you'd get a fresh CD with it stuffed full of the hottest demos to try. Good times.
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Switch has been using demos. A lot of them, too.
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he should be ashamed of himself working for a16z. reactionary VC ghouls
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He has bills to pay like the rest of us, and considering he left traditional games media to start a crowdfunded project (NoClip), I doubt he would take a deal like this unless he needed to.
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yeah i'm sure this top 1% acclaimed journalist had no other options
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Ah, that's a bummer. I love Danny's stuff in general, didn't know that about this company.
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Whats wrong with a16z? I've literally never heard of it before now
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- https://jacobin.com/2024/01/marc-andreessen-techno-optimist-manifesto-reactionary-elitism-nietzsche-hayek-ideology
- https://archive.ph/Bux0D
- https://www.vice.com/en/article/93kg5d/major-tech-investor-calls-architect-of-fascism-a-saint-in-unhinged-manifesto
- https://www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/archive/2024/02/despots-silicon-valley/677386/
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Haha, Shareware.
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Demo or beta testers?
22 comments