Crytek Thinks Free Game Demos Will Soon Be Extinct

An anonymous reader writes with this quote from Develop: "The CEO of indie studio Crytek has defended EA's divisive 'premium downloadable content' strategy, while also predicting the extinction of free game demos. ... Crytek's co-founder Cevat Yerli said he wasn't sure that a demo of Crysis 2 was going to be released. He said: 'A free demo is a luxury we have in the game industry that we don't have in other industries such as film. Because we've had this free luxury for so long, now there are plans to change this people are complaining about it. The reality is that we might not see any free game demos in the long term. ... Yes it is quite unpopular, but this is a messaging issue. The problem with any new strategy like this is it initially may appear as a blood-hungry, money-grabbing strategy. But I think there is a genuine interest here to give gamers something more than a small demo released for free. Really, what this is, is an attempt to salvage a problem. The industry is still losing a lot of money to piracy as the market becomes more online-based. So it’s encouraging to see strategies outlined to combat this.'"

Re:So lets do a hypothetical.

[Monkeedude1212]

Okay - lets pop another hypothetical.

There are two games. One you know nothing about other then its being developed by the same studio that produced 2 other titles you loved. The other one, you played the demo, and weren't impressed.

Which one are you going to buy?

This is the kind of trend the market is following.

Recommended System requirements aren't enough...

[Pirate_Pettit]

In addition to providing a (hopefully representative) test of content that we as gamers pay quite a premium for, free demos are extremely useful for benchmarking how a new title will run on a custom-built machine. I cannot stress this enough - I don't buy a title unless I have some idea of how it will run on my rig, and an in-game demo is far more useful than a theoretical advert on the side of the box/website. Eliminate this source of info, and you have some gamers who won't take the risk that a new title will perform adequately on an older custom built, and some other, more vocal gamers who -will- take the risk and then be extremely annoyed and dissatisfied - especially if a title isn't well optimized compared to similar titles with similar theoretical requirements (See: Mass effect 1 vs Mass effect 2) The suggestion that free demos aren't of benefit is insulting.

Re:really?

[Anonymous Coward]

Serenity? It was 10 minutes IIRC.

It was also a bit dishonest, because those first 10 minutes were the most engaging parts of the film. So it, too, was released to build hype. But I loved Serenity regardless.

Re:This will insure..

[Anonymous Coward]

exactly. Until the S/W industry has a method to return games for a refund because you discover they are crap, then a demo is necessary. Otherwise, I will just pirate the game, try it out and if I like it, I buy it. That's what I do now when no demo is available. I still get burned. It's the attitude like this that really pisses me off. We've been getting for it free, so we should'nt bitch when it goes away. I think what we are about to see is a model that charges for the demo. Try the game for $10, if you like it, buy it for another $40 ($50). Wait and see what happens.

Re:really?

[i.r.id10t]

What sucks is when the 30 seconds or 2 minutes (or whatever the length of the long ones in theaters) of the movie shown is either from an awesome deleted scene or is made up of the only 30 second (to 2 minutes or whatever) of the movie worth watching.

Re:Demo is best way to see how it runs

[mabinogi]

EB Games have always had that policy. I would imagine some of their competitors do too.

Re:really?

[Anonymous Coward]

* The industry is still losing a lot of money to piracy
** 3 year jail sentence introduced for even looking at a pirated video game

* The industry is still losing a lot of money to piracy!
** Indentured servitude for family of video game pirates introduced

* The industry is *still* losing a lot of money to piracy!!
** Death penalty introduced for video game piracy

* The industry is **still** losing a lot of money to piracy!!!!
** All computer systems to be monitored 24 hours a day for pirated material

* The industry is **STILL** losing a lot of money to piracy!!!!!!
** 24 brain monitoring introduced to combat the thought-IP-theft

etc
etc
etc

The "content" industry blames piracy when they lose money because they are... well... shitweasels. And that leads to ever greater and more bizarre demands on the law.