Time/play limited demos

[Rummy]

So...I been wondering for a long time why Nintendo opt to make play-times limited demos with their 3DS and Wii U titles. This can end up going into a General Gaming territory but really at the moment afaik it's a Nintendo specific issue. I wasn't even gonna make a thread about this as it's still rather trivial, but I thought might as well have the discussion in a single place.

 

So...what do people think of this? I mean I've always been apprehensive to it since first witnessing it on 3DS. Being a mild hoarder in general gaming terms, it actually almost puts me off playing a demo...and then I think why does it even exist.

 

Demos aren't anything new, and usually as a 'snippet-limited' demo it's fine, and the most common approach - make a demo that contains just a snippet of the game and finishes at some point.

 

One demo I recall being particularly time-limited was Just Cause 2, but that kinda made sense given the nature of the game. Other than that I think most games have been 'snippet-limited' and in fact Nintendo's demo's essentially are too, so the ultimate question is...why have them play-times limited too?

 

 

What are people's thoughts on it all? I generally see it as pointless, and I'd say archaic but it's not even that, it's just...pointless and unnecessary imo! Why do they do it??

[Helmsly]

I think they are unnecessary, if someone really enjoys a demo they will go on to buy the full game.

 

The Just cause 2 demo is a good example of how pointless it is, they limited it to 25 minutes but there was nothing stopping you from reloading the game right away and playing it again.

[Guy]

I don't like it, but I prefer it to having no demo available.

 

If I find myself playing the same demo 15-20 times, I'm probably going to just go out and buy the game.

[Ashley]

Well I understand why demos for events (E3 et al) are time-limited, and I'd understand if Nintendo then just rolled these out to consoles...but the latter rarely happens.

 

But perhaps it is just the demos that are released, are those that have been put into shows and they need to be time-limited to prevent people hogging machines.

[Ike]

Personally, I don't get why you would need to play a demo more than a couple of times so it doesn't bother me. I would get bored playing the same bit over and over, if I like the demo I would buy the game and get the full experience.

 

Unless the demo save transfers over, but they normally have a decent number of tries.

[EEVILMURRAY]

I hate the idea. When Demo One was with the PS1 I played the Wip3out demo to death, and some of the others. I did eventually buy Crash Bandicoot because of it (and bossed that bad boy) but I always welcomed the potential of a random Wip3out/whatever else was on the disc without having a countdown on the amount of times I could play it.

[Ronnie]

Personally, I don't get why you would need to play a demo more than a couple of times so it doesn't bother me.

 

This. I can't see how someone would want to play a demo more than 30 times (in Nintendo's case) without buying the full game. Non issue for me but I can understand people calling the limit pointless.

[Rummy]

I think they are unnecessary, if someone really enjoys a demo they will go on to buy the full game.

 

The Just cause 2 demo is a good example of how pointless it is, they limited it to 25 minutes but there was nothing stopping you from reloading the game right away and playing it again.

 

True, but being that it was an open-world 'you can go anywhere you can see' sort of game, a time-limited demo in that game made sense.

 

I don't like it, but I prefer it to having no demo available.

 

If I find myself playing the same demo 15-20 times, I'm probably going to just go out and buy the game.

 

I def prefer it to no demo...but still I might play a demo a few times! Or, even worse, I might *start* to play a demo and not be able to continue because I gotta do something. This is fine for 3DS where I can sleep it...Wii U not so much.

 

Personally, I don't get why you would need to play a demo more than a couple of times so it doesn't bother me. I would get bored playing the same bit over and over, if I like the demo I would buy the game and get the full experience.

 

Unless the demo save transfers over, but they normally have a decent number of tries.

 

Again yeah I see where you're coming from - however I don't use demos just for myself. It's not like I play a demo over and over and over forever(at least not since I was a kid) - sometimes I wanna show people it instead! Limited plays makes me apprehensive on throwaways.

 

Even if I *DID* want to play a demo over and over and over again - if it's a limited content demo then why does it really matter how many times I play it? Why would you even limit it? Are you genuinely worried people might get enough of their jollies from a demo alone, or that they might even realise it's crap if they play it 16 times as opposed to 15?

 

For me it just seems like some a bizarre and unnecessary model, similar to the modern age insistence on region locking.

 

This. I can't see how someone would want to play a demo more than 30 times (in Nintendo's case) without buying the full game. Non issue for me but I can understand people calling the limit pointless.

 

Also fair, but admittedly I based my post of W101 without looking at many other demos. 30 is a fairly standard number of 'plays' which isn't too bad but it seems the bigger titles tend to be 15...I'm not sure that's enough if I'm trying to show the game/system off to friends on something that regardless of playtimes restriction is still limited content.

[Dcubed]

It's a good way to prevent people from just playing a demo over and over again, feeling satisfied with just the demo itself.

 

And really, if you play a demo more than 20 or 30 times... Chances are that you're interested enough in the game to buy it anyway.

[peterl0]

I am not keen on the play limited demos on the 3ds and wii u. Despite never using more than about five usages on any demo I am paranoid about wasting them when I only have five to ten minutes to play games. As a result I have had demos that I have never played and then deleted.

 

Mind you, the demos have all convinced me NOT to get the game rather than to actually buy it so perhaps they shouldn't listen to me anyway.