No Demo?

I can’t be the only gamer who has noticed a serious decline in the amount of PC game demo’s being released. Sure PC gaming has taken a hit in recent years due to companies thinking Pirates are customers, but it doesn’t make any sense for the games coming out to not have demos.

In fact, the only reason I can see for not having a demo is knowing that your game is: 1) a terrible game, 2) lacking content and a twenty minute demo would be most of the game, or 3) repetitive to the point of being boring. If your game is actually good, then the only thing you are accomplishing by not putting out a demo is to limit the amount of people that buy your game.

For instance, I’m interested in Command and Conquer 4, but I’m not going to pick it up until I play it and decide I like it, since I’ve gone back and forth with previous C&Cs. The problem is that there is no demo for Command & Conquer 4, at least not that I could find. This of course is probably because they secretly took the Ubisoft route and an internet connection is apparently required to play the game, according to an article on Kotaku.

So are companies not putting out demos because they know their games are subpar crapware or a major letdown in some way? It’s tempting to only buy games that have demos, since I have a chance to try them out and decide if they actually are shitware. With that in mind I foresee fewer and fewer games putting out demos as more and more great studios are bought out by the EAs and the Activisions so that their games can become a yearly middle finger directed at gamers, who of course will continue to purchase them in record numbers.