One of the smartest things Microsoft has done with Xbox LIVE Arcade is make demos a requirement for each and every game, and furthermore, made it so upgrading to the full version is a mere button press away. Really, it's hard not to impulse buy because of the way everything is set up.
At a Q&A session held during an earnings briefing for Nintendo, CEO Satoru Iwata spoke with investors about a newfound interest in providing WiiWare demos later this month. But wait a second -- as of this time, this will be nothing more than a test for a few games.
Nintendo wants to see if demos will help expand the market for WiiWare and DSiWare, but Iwata isn't confident this move will immediately fix the problem, hence it being just a test. If you ask me, such a plan is certainly not going to hurt anything.
While there are currently a lot of unknowns -- which games will be getting demos, what regions this applies to, etc. -- this is something you'd all be interested in seeing, right? Are there any games in particular you've always wanted to try without blindly buying them?
[Via IGN]
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Contest:
8:30 PM on 11.03.2009
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Give demos for those, and normal Wii games too. A big SD card will be needed, though.
Peter Molyneux thinks so too.
Left 4 Dead 2's demo proves this by rewarding the people who already bought it with early access.
There are a number of people who would pirate a game because there's no demo and they don't want to blow n amount of money on an unsure thing. ...but then they'd probably keep the "demo" if it's good, so uh...yeah...
Interesting, I'm the exact opposite (of both you and Molyneux, apparently). I end up buying well over half the games that I download the demo for. I guess it's because I must be at the very least mildly interested in the game to bother downloading the demo to begin with, and the small taste I normally get from playing the demo is rarely enough.
Also, like Jordan mentioned, on XBLA it's just so goddamn easy to buy the full version of the game from within the main menu of the demo (in fact, all you gotta do is push X) that it practically begs me to do it. I'm a terrible impulse buyer, but I thankfully never suffer from buyer's remorse. (I guess I'm their demographic.)
I just wish PSN would wake the fuck up and make their online marketplace experience a little more enjoyable. I normally get so frustrated at their lack of screenshots/descriptions/demos of games that I end up O-ing out before downloading anything at all.
And hey, I'm not going to be sad if Nintendo lets me play free games.
Hell yeah. I can't wait to play a demo for Super Mario Bros 3. That way I can finally find out if it's any good.
Lit.
Evasive Space.
Bit.Trip Beat.
Swords & Soldiers.
Let's CATCH.
Bit.Trip Core.
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a Darklord.
You, Me & The Cubes.
i can help you out with a few of those. buy the bit trip games for sure. lit really isn't worth it, you'll play it once, and figure out that it doesn't make much sense. you're on your own for the others tho, although i'm still kinda itchin to give swords n soldiers a try...
As for retail, even if they couldn't have downloadable demos they should have at the very lease been giving demo disks away with there official magazine.
I've bought two wiiware titles to date. One was World Of Goo. (Only Wii game I actually still play). The other I got burned on - Sandy Beach - meant to be a kids game but the controls are not kid friendly - a demo would have saved me there.
that said, even with demos I have no intention of putting more money into my Wii as at this point I have lost all faith that good games are coming.