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[Kratos]

I remember in the late 90s, majority of games had a playable demo for download or you could pick up a PC Gamers magazine and there used to be a disc full of demos for people who wanted to try it out before purchasing the game. Now we don't see that anymore, which is probably why piracy is growing. Can't a game company just a release a small sample of the game and let the consumers give a taste of it before shelling out $60 and perhaps minimizing piracy? What happen to those times? I doubt its going to hurt the company.

If they still are doing this with Windows software like trials versions, then how the fuck hard is it to make trial demos for games?

There must be a reason for this. 

[namajnaG]

They're still around actually, But way less than before. Most XBox/PS3 titles has demos to come with, But most game companies are putting way less time into PC games now than they did before, Unfortunately...
Since consoles are more accessible than PC's, And consoles are trying to become PCs more and more, Game companies would rather spend their time making games more plausible for consoles due to the high amount of console owners, And probably also because piracy is on the loose for the PC.

It's either that, Or game companies love money too much and they know that even if there's no demos around, There's still going to be plenty of people buying the game nonetheless.

[Enzo.Matrix]

Fun fact:

Goldeneye Source was to be included in PC Gamer.

[major]

I thought I remember GE:S being on a demo disc... hmmm maybe was just a featured article. Back how I heard of GE:S, from PC Gamer.

[mbsurfer]

It was a whole centerspread in PC Gamer if I do recall.

Any who... I still see a few disc sleeves in magazines at Barnes and Noble/Books A Million every now and then. I guess all platforms, especially PC, have taken everything online. All demos are downloadable, and I don't think that's changing any time soon.

[Rick Astley]

I thought I remember GE:S being on a demo disc... hmmm maybe was just a featured article. Back how I heard of GE:S, from PC Gamer.

yeah it was Beta 3.1 it was highlighted as the best mod you would ever play in Pc Gamer Australia...it also had an image of Mishkin with a shotgun in Complex

[major]

This would of been alpha. I joined the team after the beta1 debacle. Tested beta2

[kraid]

Game Demos.... called full price games these days.
Nah... that's a little unfair.
But since playthrough time for some games is very short and there's no replay value, it might appear that way sometimes.

[Conmore]

I blame EA for this whole console thing. They overhype games that nobody would ever get more than 7 hours of gameplay out of, then make DLC that costs $15 a pop. Then people want to get an XBox because of the entirely legit and unbiased reviews of Activision's games. With $75, I can get a Sega Dreamcast, Quake III: Arena, and Space Channel 5. Then you get  easily 50+ hours of gameplay.

[namajnaG]

With $75, I can get a Sega Dreamcast, Quake III: Arena, and Space Channel 5. Then you get  easily 50+ hours of gameplay.

Quake III has unlimited replayability value

[kraid]

As long as there are servers.
But companies who offer you online play on console often shut down the servers after a while.
Unlike on PC, there's no possibility to create your own servers.

[Conmore]

There are still servers for the Dreamcast version. But I play on PC. Those servers are probably hacked though, but a server's a server.