EA To Charge For Game Demos

Kohato brings word of a new Electronic Arts marketing strategy that aims to start monetizing game demos. According to industry analyst Michael Patcher after an EA investor visit, the publisher will start selling "premium downloadable content" prior to a game's release for $10-$15 that is essentially a longer-than-usual demo. Patcher said, "I think that the plan is to release PDLC at $15 that has 3-4 hours of gameplay, so [it has] a very high perceived value, then [EA will] take the feedback from the community (press and players) to tweak the follow-on full game that will be released at a normal packaged price point." He also made reference to a comment from EA's CEO John Riccitiello that "the line between packaged product sales and digital revenues would soon begin to blur."

Re:Shareware

[Lunix Nutcase]

How is this shareware? Shareware was giving away free trial versions of a software that you then had to pay to upgrade to the full version. This is selling people a beta version of a game to demo.

Re:$15 dollars for 4 hours of gameplay?

[Bugamn]

I think the article says that one would need 3 to 4 hours to finish the demo, not that it would be a time-bomb demo with a fuse of 3 to 4 hours.

Re:It's the Polyphony Digital model!

[mathx314]

Same with Torchlight. The only way it's a demo is that they're using the same engine and some of the same assets to build an MMO. The game itself is a complete (and incredibly fun) Diablo clone.

Sensationalist Buillshit

[MobileTatsu-NJG]

What the headline says:

"EA To Charge For Game Demos"

What the article says:

- None of the proposals call for charging consumers for traditionally free game demos.

Re:It'll work

[LatencyKills]

Interestingly, I was one of those people who thought my internet connection was rock solid, but as I've been trying to review (shameless plug: game-over.net) CNC4 for a couple of weeks now without being able to complete a SINGLE GAME, I guess that's not the case. I've never had problems with any online games in the past - CoD:MW, CNC3, Kane's Wrath, SC2:Beta - CNC4 regularly reports that I've been dropped from the service and need to log in again (and it doesn't save your PW, BTW). I'm sure glad my game copy came through the review site and I didn't pay for it or I'd really be pissed.

Re:Shareware

[dunezone]

...and always wondered at who would buy them when they were free! All you needed was access to a BBS or a mate.

For some of us it was cheaper to buy them at the store then tie up the phone line to a long distance call to a BBS server.

Re:Shareware

[MBGMorden]

Where I was at MOST of the BBS's were long distance, not to mention that downloads were slow as molasses on a 2400 BAUD modem and the terminal program wasn't multitasking (so you had to leave the computer alone to do it's thing while it downloaded).

Trust me, those shareware houses that sold "by the disk" had a purpose back in the day.