Who knew Cevat Yerli of Crytek fame had so much to say about the state of game demos? In an interview with Develop, the CEO went all out and even gave some props to EA for its oft-hated proposal for paid downloadable games (aka extensive “demos,” as the Internet likes to say).
“A free demo is a luxury we have in the game industry that we don’t have in other industries such as film,” said Yerli. “Because we’ve had this free luxury for so long, now there are plans to change this people are complaining about it. The reality is that we might not see any free game demos in the long term.”
“I think the whole [non-free “demo”] issue needs to be explained in a better way, because there is good thinking behind EA’s plan. I understand why people are thinking that all EA wants to do is maximize profits out of the audience. What it’s really trying to do,” continued Yerli, “is get investment back but while being as fair to the gamer as much as it can. Ultimately, it will be a better deal for the gamer.”
So … does this mean we’ll see a Crysis 2 demo? “That’s something we need to think about, because we haven’t fully decided on this yet,” explained Yerli.
It seems to me like not doing a demo for a visually stunning game like Crysis 2 — on PC, at least — would be unwise. Unless of course you actually want people to pirate it just to see if the thing can run well or not.
Crytek foresees ‘the end of free game demos’ [Develop via Big Download]
