Demo

lacubs

SatelliteGuys Pro
Original poster
Oct 9, 2007
1,594
42
Erie, Pa
i just read there will be no Madden Demo this year, is this where we have come now? where even company are afraid to released a Demo because people might not like it and not spent the $60
 
There are actually many compelling reasons for companies nowadays to NOT release a demo. Madden has really been one of the rare exceptions. This video breaks it down really well:



As far as why Madden 15 isn't having one, it's because EA is stopping it in lieu of allowing early access to those who subscribe to EA Access.

http://www.polygon.com/2014/8/11/5991063/madden-nfl-15-no-demo-ea-access
 
Honestly, at this point madden is madden. Yes, there are subtle differences but if you liked last year's game you will probably like this one. If you didn't like it last year there probably won't be enough new stuff to change your mind.
 
Speaking of demos, I'm a little disappointed to see that the free 60-minute trials for PS Plus members aren't making the jump to PS4. I've actually bought 4 of the 5 games I've tried out that way--albeit at a good sale price.

As a newbish gamer, I not only relied on demos to see if I liked a game, but to see if I could even pull it off from a skill standpoint. Having never played an RPG before, and being a little intimidated at the prospect, I demoed Mass Effect 2 when it was released for PS3, and now it's my favorite franchise, and I've gone on to buy other RPGs. I can't say the same about racing games. I probably saved some money by demoing racing games I was excited about, only to find I have no business ever playing a sim-style racing game (I fare a little better in arcade racers, and demos have showed me I could do well enough to enjoy it).
 
Destiny Beta ended a while ago.

It does suck that nowadays there's no real consistent way to test whether a game is good or not unless you actually buy it. I remember back in the PC gaming days when Shareware was so prevalent. You'd get 10-33% of the entire game for FREE to try out before you went and purchased it. And you could get CD-Roms that had hundreds of demos on it for about $10, providing you with hours of entertainment and access to numerous games you might not otherwise be interested in. And when I was growing up in the 80s/90s I was a regular at my local game rental store.

Sadly nowadays the business of making games has become so bloated and complicated and expensive that no company in their right mind would give away so much content for free in the hope that it would turn into an actual sale. Nowadays all we have is Gamefly and the occasional demo, and quite frankly neither are ideal options.
 
i remember when I was growing up in the 90s even groceries stores would have videos/games rental , now we don't any videos/games rental stores and barely any " groceries stores"
 
Actually we do still have rentals in grocery stores, or rather, outside the grocery stores with Redbox. Again, not an ideal solution since there is a daily rental charge and the selection is VERY limited.
 
Redbox is still in the test market phase for next gen games.

Madden has EA Access on X1 and eventually ps4 has share play to help with this kind of thing.
Not exactly. For one, EA Access is just EA games, and share play means you can only play games that your friends have. They also haven't given the specifications of how the Share Play will work. I doubt they'll let you "share" for more than 10 minutes. They'll have to set some heavy restrictions so that people don't just go and "share" an entire game with someone. PSNow would be good if they just got a pricing model down that made sense, as well as fix some of the bandwidth issues they're having (as well as add some modern gen games.)
 
PSNow would be good if they just got a pricing model down that made sense, as well as fix some of the bandwidth issues they're having (as well as add some modern gen games.)

The bold part is why PS Now will never be big. They have said that the service won't include PS4 games. As long as they are limiting it to previous generation games the market will be limited. Yes it's fun to go back and play old games now and then but people want to play new games on their new consoles.

The pricing and image quality are important but if they can't include PS4 games I don't believe those factors will mater all that much. If they do start to include PS4 games how much will the picture be degraded from the native game? I think I'll just be keeping my Gamefly service for the foreseeable future.
 
Or they could just integrate it into the PSN store. Since it does that "install on demand" sort of thing you could play while you download. I don't see why they couldn't integrate a sort of "try" feature.
 
Or they could just integrate it into the PSN store. Since it does that "install on demand" sort of thing you could play while you download. I don't see why they couldn't integrate a sort of "try" feature.

Yep, I would prefer an option to download PS Now rentals instead of streaming as well. That way you know you are seeing the game the way it was designed to be seen and you don't have to worry about lag issues. Streaming is nice for those who want instant access but I'd rather wait a little longer for the best possible quality.
 
Yep, I would prefer an option to download PS Now rentals instead of streaming as well. That way you know you are seeing the game the way it was designed to be seen and you don't have to worry about lag issues. Streaming is nice for those who want instant access but I'd rather wait a little longer for the best possible quality.

And from a technology standpoint, it could easily work like the 60-minute full game trials on PS3 work for Plus members. Seems like a missed opportunity that Sony never monetized this ability to download a full game (which is "purchased" in your PSN account) and play it for a fixed amount of time. That would have been SO much easier and better from a quality standpoint than programming and testing the PS Now service. It could even be set up where you still get a free 60-minutes, and when that time is up you are prompted to pay for 4 hours, a day, a week, or make a full purchase.
 
I'm willing to bet a LOT of money that this hasn't been done not because Sony doesn't want to, but because various publishers don't want to. If you can't get them to sign off on it then you got nothing.
 
They could've at least tested it with first party titles, indies/dowloadable games, and the older bargain bin games that now dominate the PS Now catalog. I'm guessing the 60-minute trials were a fail from a converted sales standpoint, combined with the fact that the current cloud streaming model seems to be THE "thing." Or maybe Sony was simply counting on the 12 GB PS3 to be its hottest seller. :p
 
They could've at least tested it with first party titles, indies/dowloadable games, and the older bargain bin games that now dominate the PS Now catalog. I'm guessing the 60-minute trials were a fail from a converted sales standpoint, combined with the fact that the current cloud streaming model seems to be THE "thing." Or maybe Sony was simply counting on the 12 GB PS3 to be its hottest seller. :p

I get the point of what you said but the 12GB PS3 actually wasn't a bad choice if you already knew you were going to be putting in a big hard drive on your own. If PS4 had another SKU with a tiny hard drive I would have bought it knowing I was putting a 1TB drive in anyways.
 
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