So a free demo can cut your sales in half???

Discussion in 'Public Game Developers Forum' started by Wizardo, Feb 12, 2013.

  1. Wizardo

    Wizardo Well-Known Member

    Jul 30, 2012
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    Starving indie developer
    New Jersey!
    #1 Wizardo, Feb 12, 2013
    Last edited: Feb 12, 2013
    Hey guys.

    So, I was currently wrapping up the finishing touches on the demo for my upcoming game CastleAbra, when I stumbled across this video:

    Jesse Schell - Full Keynote Speech.

    His claim is that a demo will usually diminish whatever enthusiasm the customer had when he first learned about your game. He argues that if you give an interested customer no recourse but to buy your game, he will be more likely to do so.

    He also shows a slide clearly showing how (on average) games with no demos will literally double the sales of games with demos.

    So now I'm left wondering if I should even release (a completed) demo for our game.

    I'd love to hear others opinions and experiences with demos and how they've affected sales.

    I should mention that the plan for our game was to send out our press release along with a demo, and a new, snazzy trailer in the next week or so. Our game will be available on iOS for 3 dollars (I know, I know) and on PC for 10. I'd argue that a higher priced game should have a demo, but the games he referenced were Xbox live games which sell for a good chunk of change.

    Any advice would be appreciated.

    Also, if you have the chance, watch the whole video. He makes a lot of good observations on where this industry is headed.

    Thanks!
     
  2. bramblett05

    bramblett05 Well-Known Member

    Aug 29, 2012
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    That's false look at the 2 batman games. It depends on if the game is good it self cause we know demo is a demo things change but most do stay the same. I bet the metal gear rising game is gonna sell just because of the demo.
     
  3. Joltrabbit

    Joltrabbit Well-Known Member

    Jul 5, 2012
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    Demos kill bad games. They are amazing for spreading word-of-mouth for underappreciated gems.

    It could hurt games somewhere in the middle but not by half.

    Can you imagine a demo or lite version for borderlands legends? Now that game would have had its sales cut in half

    Worst case scenario use it as a preview build for Gaming sites.
     
  4. Wizardo

    Wizardo Well-Known Member

    Jul 30, 2012
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    Starving indie developer
    New Jersey!
    Right. I would have never thought a demo could hurt. But listen to his argument. He starts talking about this at 8:42. and 10:36 at he pulls up the chart that clearly shows games with no demos outselling game with demos.
     
  5. bramblett05

    bramblett05 Well-Known Member

    Aug 29, 2012
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    Yes now that part yes. If a developer makes a game that uses a franchise title and makes it for 360 only to be something else demo free well results may vary. Plus remember mortal kombat special ops or whatever with jax and sonya? Did one then did a 360 after fans weren't happy (real fans wouldn't have bought it)
     
  6. Wizardo

    Wizardo Well-Known Member

    Jul 30, 2012
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    Starving indie developer
    New Jersey!
    Good advice. At least, I will send the demo to reviewers. Thanks.
     
  7. Wizardo

    Wizardo Well-Known Member

    Jul 30, 2012
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    Starving indie developer
    New Jersey!
    To be clear. I'm confident that most people will love the demo, and a good portion of them will buy the game, but my partner made a good point.

    Imagine there's two cool looking games you wanna buy. The first one has a demo which you try and love. Now that second, enticing game you're excited about has no demo, but it looks so cool. Which one do you buy? You're still curious about that second one after all.

    That's the speakers point. That initial curiosity will sit with the consumer until they get their hands on the game. Paid or otherwise.

    And speaking for myself, I know 99 percent of the games I've owned were bought without playing the demo.

    It seems counter intuitive, but that speaker may be on to something.
     
  8. KennyK

    KennyK Well-Known Member

    Couldn't you just buy both?

    It's a more complicated matter though if, for whatever reason, you can only buy one. For me, I would buy the second game, especially if it looks good and the reviews are good. I wouldn't buy the first one as I would feel as if I've played the game before, and would prefer something new and different.

    Just my opinion though, I'm sure others will differ...
     
  9. bramblett05

    bramblett05 Well-Known Member

    Aug 29, 2012
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    What is the game and maybe you can do a beta on testflight :)
     
  10. Stephen Richard

    Stephen Richard Active Member

    Jan 2, 2013
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    Demos certainly exposes your games to number of gamers. It helps to increase your sales and downloads. since anyone who play through the demo would be exposed to more marketing strategy.
     
  11. Wizardo

    Wizardo Well-Known Member

    Jul 30, 2012
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    Starving indie developer
    New Jersey!
    It's a first person point and clicker. I find that most games in this genre seem to offer demos. DoubleFine, Tell Tale and Big Fish all offer demos, so who am I to argue?

    I'm pretty sure we're gonna offer a demo.
     
  12. Hercule

    Hercule Well-Known Member

    Dec 16, 2010
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    #12 Hercule, Feb 14, 2013
    Last edited: Feb 14, 2013
    If you already have a good exposure, the demo is only a way for the player to not buy your game.

    2 cases:
    - One famous game with lot of press:
    every potential player know about it and want to buy it. Some of them try the demo. If the player finally didn't found the game good he won't buy it.
    So a demo will only be an excuse to not buy the game (boring, too violent, not pretty, too hard etc..).

    - One unknow game:
    A player see that there is a new demo available, the screenshot looks cool.
    He try it and may or may not buy it.

    What AAA game usually do:
    They wait a few weeks/months that all player intended to buy the game, buy it. After that they release a demo to try to get player not convinced to buy the game yet.


    A demo is always better for the player. For the dev not always.
     
  13. Wizardo

    Wizardo Well-Known Member

    Jul 30, 2012
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    Starving indie developer
    New Jersey!
    I think you got it perfectly. Our game is unknown as you can get, so I can't see a demo hurting us. Especially since the demo rocks.
    Thanks
     
  14. All the demos I have ever liked, I have bought, so I can't believe all these negatives about it.
     
  15. Rafark

    Rafark Active Member

    Apr 16, 2011
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    I for example have discovered a lot of awesome unknown games by playing their demos thinking they were full free games, but when i see that it's only a demo but it's a good game that makes you wanna play more, I totally buy it.
     
  16. iPadisGreat

    iPadisGreat Well-Known Member

    Dec 10, 2012
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    As a player, I have crossed a lot of games off my purchase list after trying their demos, or lite versions in App Store parlance.

    Among the games I bought, there were some that I would never have paid for if they had demos, but which I later grew to enjoy.

    So demos need to show what is fun about their games and not be lazy and just plunk the player down into the first mission...
     
  17. Bigmac1910

    Bigmac1910 Member

    Jul 13, 2012
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    I think those numbers are skewed to a certain point. I download demos that look nice graphically, even if I'm not interested in the genre. That gives them a download, but I will probably never buy that game because I don't care for the genre, unless it completely blows me away (extremely rare).

    Most of the time though it either pushes me over the fence to buy, or confirm my fears that it truly is a crap game. If you have a crap game with bad controls, don't do a demo, if you have a good demo more people will buy it.
     

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