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| [Feb 12, 2013, 10:22 am ET] - Share - Viewing Comments |
PCGamesN links to a D.I.C.E. SUMMIT 2013 Keynote Speech by Puzzle Clubhouse creator Jesse Schell where the CEO of Schell Games makes the interesting, if counter-intuitive case that releasing a demo for a game hurts sales, and that the key to successfully marketing a game is to make players want to try it without giving them a chance to. He offers a chart of the "Hype Curve" of marketing a game, which contains data points with disturbing labels such as "Peak of Inflated Expectations" and "Trough of Disillusionment," and offers the following personal perspective on how this works, at least in the case of his game: "You mean we spent all this money making a demo and getting it out there, and it cut our sales in half?," he asks himself, before answering: "Yes, that’s exactly what happened to you." Thanks Joao.
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Re: Developer: Demos Kill Sales |
Feb 12, 2013, 22:53 |
Closed Betas |
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ViRGE wrote on Feb 12, 2013, 20:10:
Narf2029 wrote on Feb 12, 2013, 17:42:
DEMOS KILL SALES: A demo of a shitty game lets people know it's shitty before they buy. Thus, less sales. Next! Am I the only one that sees this slightly differently? That this isn't about game quality?
Demos don't kill the sales of games based on their quality, but rather based on their hype. If you throw an 8 digit marketing campaign behind a game, you're going to build up a ton of hype for that game. People are going to be talking about your game, theorizing about your game, wanting your game. The entire point of marketing is to create demand for a product; to convince consumers that they absolutely must buy your game.
To that end, releasing a demo is shooting yourself in a foot. You've spent all this money creating demand, so the last thing you want to do is to give consumers a way to satiate their demand for free. If there's a demo, some portion of the consumer base is going to have their product lust satisfied. Conversely withholding a demo means that the only way they can satisfy that lust is to buy the game.
When purchasing decisions are based on emotions and irrationality, demos are your enemy. Demos are for people making rational decisions, which is not what heavily hyped AAA games are going for.
Naah, Rule #1
Know who your market is....
Your market is kids, most probably don't have a ton of money...
You want them to try and play a game, then they will invest what little they have...
2 problems... Too much selection, too much crap... = DEMO KILLS SALES.... a good product can never lose from a demo, its nothing short of HYPE, it is the hype.. it's even better, its the hook
but people don't pay for crap.. .and sorry crap is all thats out there on a grand scale |
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