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| Do Betas and Demos Kill the Mood and Sales? |
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| Written by alien | |||||||
| Wednesday, 05 November 2008 09:23 | |||||||
 The question is, do game companies sell less games because they offer a beta or a demo? In an interview with GamePro magazine, Gears of War head-honcho Cliff Bleszinski said the following
So, what Cliff seems to be saying is that they will not sell as many games to the public if they offer a beta/demo. Makes some sense and as the old saying goes, why buy the cow (or GOW in this case...) when the milk is free. Of course betas can be looked at in a slightly different light than demos because a beta is supposed to help the devs sort out issues that they might not have found otherwise. Wide-scale testing also stresses servers and other support systems that routing in-house testing just can't do as effectively. On the other hand, betas do provide quite a bit of insight into the final product. The gameplay will almost certainly be the same and graphics usually only increase slightly in the final versions. In essense, a beta of a multi-player game is a free playing period that helps devs and gets gamers excited about a game. Of course this can backfire and it can cause gamers to run the other way before the final version even hits the streets. Maybe some of the issues have been fixed? Could be, but some might not know it because they got their fix in, prejudged the game and moved along.  One good example of a beta going awry is the oft-mentioned Frontlines: Fuel of War PC beta. Promises were made, people played the beta (several stages in fact) and gave feedback, answered polls and were generally invested in the process. In the end, the beta was buggy and cheats and exploits were rampant. This put many gamers off on the game and kept them away when it was launched (we canceled our pre-order). While it still lumbers on in life-support, it's undeniable that the preview seen in the beta might not have been a good idea from a sales standpoint. If we look at the flip-side of the coin, the beta saved consumers money on a game they might have not been pleased with. Demos can be seen in a more positive and negative light than betas. Demos will give you a preview of the finished game, not test code, but a snippet of the actual shipping version. This is great because you'll know just what to expect. From the sales standpoint this can also be a good thing because it can help you get more excited about a game...as long as it's good. A crap game makes for a crap demo and that's sure to scare away the dollars. A good game has less to worry about but there is still the cherry-popping to think about. There's that negative we were talking about. Going back to what Cliff mentioned, the very act of playing a beta or demo of a game after hearing about it and watching it being hyped can be cathartic. Just like letting go of your bladder after holding it for way too long can be a great feeling, finally popping that game cherry as Cliff puts it can also yield similar euphoria. Unlike peeing though, this isn't going to happen more than once with a single game. Once it's played, the excitement abates and the shine comes off quickly. For a dev, this is clearly not a good thing. They make games to make money. Yes they like their jobs and all that, but in the end, they need to sell games to pay their salaries. Game playing and even buying are very emotional things. While some gamers buy everything under the sun, others research a game and follow it's development from early on. This following can be seen in action if you've ever been to a midnight launch. The anticipation of a game is often a devs greatest sales asset, they know you want it and will tease out the details until it launches. They know, as Cliff says, if they let you play it you might lose your devotion. The mystery will be gone and you might devote your attention elsewhere now. That's not a good thing for them, they need your gaming love hence the decision by some to not provide any working games to the general public. While we have simplified the psychological aspect here, yeah, we can see where Cliff is coming from and we do think losing the emotional appeal of a game can be killer. We love to see demos because they can save you from a lot of heartache and buyers-remorse. The fact is though, with a good ad campaign, ample screenshots and gameplay video, a demo is not a necessary component to launch a game. Right now there are thousands of gamers playing betas of Call of Duty: World at War and the reaction is mostly positive but their is some dissent. There are cries of "COD4 mod!" being made and we do find it hard to argue with that as the game is using the COD4 engine and the gameplay/feel is identical. We're ambivalent to the game and will still buy it but we can't even pretend to forget that we've f*cked her already and the next time we get together it just won't be as much fun or as exciting. In the end, Epic and Cliff are right to hold back a GOW2 demo because so few things in life are a mystery, it would be a shame to lose them all. 
Comments (1)
murph2213
said:
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... I have played the the Cod World at War beta and do feel let down. When I first played I guess I was starry eyed and in awe of the WWII look and weapons. Then I started to play and it felt just like COD4. Exactly like COD4. Now I'm stuck wondering if the single player story is going to be good enough to justify buying this game. I know now that I won't be buying it solely for the online portion because that is just more of the same. |
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