Ben-DutkaRight now, Activision is in many a gamer's doghouse, but if EA pursues this idea, they may not be viewed in a very favorable light, either. But you might like it.
Not surprisingly, EA – like many other major publishers – has already dumped a lot of cash on the growing digital distribution boom and they clearly wish to continue. The huge amount of downloadable content the company has offered already is fairly massive and according to GameSpot , EA plans to push forward with "PDLC" or "Premium" content. Not only will it continue to apply to post-release add-ons but now, they might want it to apply to pre -release content, too. Like demos. In an investor's note, Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter spoke about a recent event in Redwood City, California, where group general manager Nick Earl explained EA's "pre-release PDLC initiative." Essentially, they're talking about "very long demos" of certain games, to be placed on the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live services for $10 to $15. And when they say "long," they refer to Battlefield 1943 , which of course is a full game by itself. Said Pachter:
"A full-blown packaged game would follow shortly after the release of the PDLC, bearing a full retail price. Mr. Earl believes that the release of the PDLC first limits the risk of completing and marketing the full packaged version, and serves as a low-cost marketing tool."
Battlefield 1943 was a huge success for EA and as of November of last year, they said DICE's solid online multiplayer game had sold around 1.2 million units on both the PS3 and 360. Furthermore, Pachter said that EA CEO John Riccitiello has acknowledged that his company hasn't performed so well during the first years of his tenure, and that a turnaround "was taking longer than he originally expected." Right now, though, he says they're about 2/3 of the way there and 1/3 of the way "towards reaching its goal of transformation into a business that distributes games through 'multiple channels.'" So the question is, would you pay for "really long demos?" Maybe for big games?
I don't mind free demos that provide me with just enough information about the gameplay to consider a purchase.
But… to pay for an extended length demo? Are you serious? You want me to pay you for access to a demo where progress is not recorded so that if I do decide to pay MORE money and FULL price for the full version, have to redo everything I've already done?
Kiss my @$$.
The demo is an advertisement for the game – it's sole purpose is to get people to pay money for the full product. If they think I'm to pay for an advertisement…good grief.
I was going to say the same thing. What's next…a charge for "long trailers"? For "large screenshots"?
Total bollocks.
Last edited by Fane1024 on 3/24/2010 10:50:35 PM
I honestly hope Sony never charges for the PSN.
I can't see paying 50 bucks a year (which I do not right now) AND have to pay extra for things like that.
Demos must be free. They cannot use BF1943 as an example. It is a complete game, small but well worth the 15$ cost. Demos are OK the way they are. Free.
If they charge for those, they just wont get the advertisement value that they have now.
I'll be honest: I'm not even entirely sure what they're TALKING about.
A demo that costs $15? Entire games can be snagged on the PSN for as little as $5; if it's $15, it's a pretty sizable downloadable title. So how big can a demo be to warrant that price? And furthermore, how is this better than just renting the game? It costs a lot less and you get the entire game to try. Yeah, you have to wait for it in the mail, I guess…
Maybe it's best for huge games. I bet the Madden drones would drop ten bucks on a big demo months before this year's game arrives. And that's the other thing: it would have to be significantly before the final product's release. People aren't quite THAT impatient.
My old boss is a Madden Drone. Too funny.
Couldn't have said it better myself. Thumbs up, lad.
My thought is that the we are talking about downloading full games. The industry has been trying to make a move toward dropping discs in favor of downloading…could it be the 10-15.00 is for the demo…after which you can pay an additional 40.00+ to unlock the full game. EA = Gamefish?
@Darwin;
Even with that policy – F. THAT.
That would be like going to a car dealership and they charge you $2,000 to test drive a car. If you like it, just dish out the remaining $16,000.
I'd much rather rent the game. If we hit a day and age (which unfortunately looks inevitable) where all games are DL only, I may just start reading in my spare time. Hopefully books will be in 3D by then.
EA CAN SUCK MY "Very Long Game Demos"
I played the hell out of the two minute run for Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, (with the snippet of Jerry was a Racecar Driver looping in the background). Really, my friends and I played that for months before actually purchasing the game, (we would try to outdo each other's scores … when's the last time THAT happened)? The demo came with an issue of the Official U.S. Playstation Magazine, (so it cost money to receive it), but, the re-playability came from the game being fresh and fun. Which leads me to my point: How many times have you played through a demo lately, and, more importantly, does the conceived value of a demo, (replayability), come from actually purchasing it or from content? Personally, most demos I play through once and then delete from my hard drive. On a few occasions I have kept a demo and played it over and over, (Hot Shots Golf: Out of Bounds to name one), but I wonder if I would keep playing them over and over had I actually laid a few buck down for them.
Unfortunately, if charging for demos becomes a common practice, I know I'll pass on, (or overlook), a few games that I might have otherwise bought had there been a free demo. The interest garnered and advertising from demos showcase smaller titles to an increasingly fickle gaming populace. Take that away, and the gaming community gains an unwarranted thorn in its side.
He's obviously not talking about demos. Who the hell would pay for a demo? No, he's talking about smaller games like Battlefield 1943 that is not as big as a retail game but that would still sell through the roof.
I'm thinking they're going to release smaller games and add on to them with dlc as they go. The "full retail version" will simply be the game with all dlc included.
Ahh. Very well done.
I think you nailed it.
sounds like EA forgot what a DEMO was. hmmm…. $15 to try to decide if i want to buy a $60 game?
no thanks, i'll keep my $75 😉
it really sounds like it has to be something besides demos
Last edited by NoMoreWar on 3/23/2010 4:27:01 PM
EA always going further than other game developers! 🙂
Though I can see where they are getting at, it still isn't fair to charge for a single demo. It's like playing $8 for a long-ass demo for what reason. Exclusitivity of demos should be for qore users you know get them a little earlier. Then again it makes no sense on charging for a demo when they are going to make money when the full game releases anyways.
They already charge $60 for "very" long demos. Most games are now only 6 – 10 hours.
LOL
So let me get this strait…EA is going to charge people for something that is free as of now…now how smart is that? Making people pay for something they have been able to get for free since the PS3 first came out. Hope they fail at that.
Last edited by DeathOfChaos on 3/23/2010 6:10:45 PM
I don't like this idea. I'm all for giving them a demo of my money for a full game though. Sorry, just trying to think like them.
reminds me of the old shareware days i guess. Still not going to pay a cent ea
This is totally BS. I hate digital distribution for reason just like this. Everyone should boycott simple add-ons like EA does with Madden games now so these companies realize people shouldn't have to pay for extras on top of the 60 bucks already dropped
I wouldn't pay for a demo but I did buy Battlefield: 1943 and definitely got my $15 worth. It was more than a demo but with only 3 maps and 3 weapons, certainly not a full game. So maybe the definition what of demo is needs to change, maybe there will be a new category that describes something which is more than demo but less than a full/retail price game.
"…EA CEO John Riccitiello has acknowledged that his company hasn't performed so well during the first years of his tenure, and that a turnaround "was taking longer than he originally expected.""
That turnaround is going to take even longer now. EA should be paying me to play their mediocre games.
well depends on their definition of very long demo, and how much it will be.
like the demo for darksiders that lasted for over a hour, id me more than happy to put 10 bucks down for something like that.
but they have to be very careful with it because most people use demos as a judgment on if they should buy the retail release or not.
if they have to pay for the demo, to make that decision well i cant see anyone doing that.
pay to get the demo earlier, or pay for a longer version ok that could work depending on both price, length and what game it is.
but they have to keep the original version, the free version that way if people dont want to pay for the "extended" version they can go for the free one.
could work well for them, but there skating on thin ice above sharks with freaking laser beams on top of their freaking heads!
hello…
a demo is a demo & cannot be charged for! now if they speak about pre-view or cut-down 'prologues' i'm OK with it, but must be worth it.
a playable demo that doesn't have same content than final release, just a showcase of what it will be & a little out of the big context story would be acceptable.
else like most said, i pay let say 5 – 15$ for the demo that will be deducted if i buy the full version or that will allow me some exclusive bonuses if i buy full.
but for marketing sake i would say NO to this, i download all demos i can (except for a few sport games) & i buy those magazines with demo discs for both PS3 & PC. I bought a lot of games after playing the demos (inFamous, Dante's Inferno, a lot of PSN titles, etc…) & may buy a few others (like MGS4), now if i need to pay for the demos, i'll be selective as with games & may miss a few.
Not all games were a must buy for me with or without a demo, so i think EA should at least have a simple 'normal' demo for free & a 'payable cut-down version with other side-story' of a game that must be released way before the release of the final game.
cheers!
How is this different than things like Ratchet and clank Quest for booty. Realisticly it's just EA trying to seem like they have original ideas.
Several problems with this idea, however I can still see it happening.
I highly doubt that the demo purchase price of $10-$15 could be applied to the retail version of the game because they would have to convince, Gamestop, Best Buy, Target, Walmart, Hastings, Toysrus, new egg, amazon, list goes on, every place that sells video games to honor the demo purchase. Good luck getting all of those places to agree to that.
Those places have to purchase their copies from the developer. How could they determine how much to pay if some copies had to be sold at full price and others at the reduced demo price? Retailers have to pay so much for their copies and it would just be too complicated to work out with every retailer.
Another reason I don't see the demo cost going towards the retail price is because the entire reason EA is doing this is to make more money, there would be no benefit to them to give a discount on the retail version because you purchased some dlc.
The saddest part of all this is that there are people who have plenty of money who will pay for this sort of thing. I know several people who, if they are interested in a game, they will purchase pre-orders, ridiculous amounts of dlc, basically purchase everything available for it, even before they know whether they like it or not.
Due to the fact that people will pay for it, EA will do it and others will follow suit. Sadly in the future this will be a terrible fact and we will see less and less free demo's as companies stop making them available in order to try and get us to pay for them.
In the end companies will do what they can to get every penny out of us they can. Call it evil, greedy, whatever, they are in business to make money and thus they will make it however they can.
For those of us who refuse to pay for demo's, we'll just have to eventually start renting every game we're interested in.
And the local video store is revived.
Is this strategy similar to what they did with Gran Turismo 5 Prologue?