Peter Molyneux: Demos Are “Never a Good Idea”
Peter Molyneux, gamer creator and Lord of Over-hyping, has lashed out at the concept of game demos.
In a recent interview with Games Industry, Molyneux expressed his displeasure in game demos, saying the following:
“Anyone out there who thinks a demo is a good idea is crazy. It’s never a good idea, because demos are usually done at the end of a game and they require an enormous amount of design talent to make a demo. The other thing is you’re more likely to satisfying the curiosity of a user rather than entice them to play more.”
I completely disagree. I had zero interest in games like Crackdown 2 and Transformers: War for Cybertron until I played the demos and now I plan to pick them up. In fact, I wasn’t even sold on Crackdown 2 until I disabled the timer and was able to experience the game at my leisure. Let me rephrase: the more of the game I was able to play, the more I wanted to purchase it.
I’m sure Molyneux’s idea of demos satisfying gamers rather than enticing them to buy is true for some people. My point is that it’s not true for all and so making a blanket statement like “Anyone out there who thinks a demo is a good idea is crazy” is, in fact, the statement of a crazy person.
And as a commenter on Go Nintendo pointed out, Fable III is being split into episodes, with the first episode being free.
“We give away the first chapter entirely free, the first hour. When you reach a certain point in the game it says ‘thank you for playing the pilot of Fable 3, do you want to spend an extra 2-5 or whatever dollars to buy the next episode, or buy the whole lot?’ Press ‘yes’ and you will immediately continue playing.”
Molyneux claims this will work better than a demo, but doesn’t explain how it’s any different from a consumer standpoint. Am I totally missing something here? I invite readers (and my colleauges) to chime in with their opinions.
