While there were a few frantic moments thanks to my lack of preparation for PAX, we were able to spend a solid amount of time just kicking back and taking in what the Park's told us was the best time of the year in their parts. I actually flew over a week ahead of the convention with my wife and daughter to visit Chris Park and his family for a few days before the team flew up to Boston. Not only that, but most of the Arcen Games team was able to get together for the first time and really get to know each other in person (three of us are in North Carolina, one in Georgia, and I'm in California). Still it was unbelievably worthwhile, as we got to shake hands with a lot of the predominantly east coast press as well as show the game off to tens of thousands (and as a bonus have it focus tested by hundreds). I knew this, but you really don't understand it completely until you've been through it. Exhibiting is just an incredibly taxing thing. Just don't slap a demo button right below the buy button if you want people to actually purchase!Īnother incredible, but extremely exhausting, experience. If you're worried about losing sales, think about the customers you may lose to disinterest and/or piracy when people Google's " demo" and nothing comes up.
VIZATI GAMEPLAY PC
Tl dr: Foregoing a demo isn't something I'd advise for PC developers. I just don't like the idea of denying players the right to play the game first in a panic move to rhetoric like that in the CVG piece. Regardless, there has to be a give and take with how we as developers try to maximize our sales while not totally jerking with our player/customer base in the process. (Or pirating it, please don't pirate it.)". But "manipulating" customers in such a passive way because it's been recorded multiple times that the game will sell less if you don't seems a better option than essentially saying: "No, you can't get a tangible feel for my game without putting money down for it. Which brings up another thought: Is it ethical to create a demo for a game and not advertise it on the same page that it's sold?
There's a bunch of psychology to it that I won't pretend to understand, but to reiterate: it's all in the presentation. But not highlighting your game's demo right next to the game's purchase option isn't the same as outright denying potential players the option to try the game out should they want to (and there's plenty of people who do, "Is there going to be a demo?" is a frequently asked question we receive leading up to a game's release). Seems to me that's exactly what's going on with this Xbox 360 study. In our experience, giving players a readily available choice to not purchase your game at the point where they should be purchasing your game is a big time no-no for driving sales.
VIZATI GAMEPLAY FULL
Also, the study is based on the Xbox 360 - which is both its own island as well as an incredibly strict and warped marketplace where a developer's one and only option to include a demo is to have it listed right alongside the game's full version. Why? For one, because the study doesn't apply to PC games, where I believe a demo can be a boon. That's really what's driving me nuts here.
You think it would be fairly common knowledge that markets such as PC and mobile are different from the Xbox 360 demographic that's under analysis, but for whatever reason that point isn't being clearly articulated. It seems pretty clear from the author's perspective that, for headline purposes, the study should be presented as if it encompassed all viable gaming platforms (certainly more compelling then including boring caveats!). To the author's credit, this point is mentioned in the article - but it's not highlighted, expounded on, or even mentioned as any kind of disclaimer that the study may not be indicative of the medium as a whole. The study only took its data from Xbox 360 games, but that point has been incredibly muddled by press.
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/501462-vizati-windows-screenshot-title-screen-592ce75b3df78cbe7e41d083.png "vizati gameplay")
I'm not irked at all by the study (hey, facts are cool and super helpful), but the presentation by CVG and a subsequent slew of other media outlets bothers me a bit. If you're not aware, CVG posted an article this past week regarding new data that suggests games with demos can result in a halving of total sales:
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