The steam 2 hour return window is the new defacto demo for all games.
It’s entirely different, though.
I’m not going to pay to try a game and lean on a refund. I just won’t play it at all.
Fair enough, I do it all the time and so do people in my friend group. There’s a new game, it’s on sale, I know I buy games on steam regularly, I buy the game, I try it, it doesn’t work, it’s not fun, something. I return it within the 2-hour window fairly regularly.
In fact, this steam two hour window has been part of game developer philosophy for a while, putting the good content first, so you don’t get bored before the 2 hours expire. There’s been a fair few reviews where people speculate this was just front-loaded so people don’t return it
There are people who do; I’m not disputing that.
But it’s a very small minority. You’re cutting out like 90+% of a potential demo audience by demanding cash on the barrel head up front. It’s objectively worse for the customer by a significant margin.
That’s a good point. I agree with that. It adds friction.
It’s the defacto demonstration of last resort, at that point somebody’s just using it to escape from a bad purchase.
If you accidentally go over 2 hours, though, then you’re stuck with it.
They’ve been back. Indie Steam games have them sometimes. Probably on Epic and GOG too, but who cares about them.
Epic can go kick rocks, but GoG is actually pretty important. Only one outside of humble bundle that gives DRM free downloads as god intended.
I remember the good old days of being super excited every time a new PCGamer magazine arrived in the mailbox and you’d get a fresh CD with it stuffed full of the hottest demos to try. Good times.
Haha, Shareware.
he should be ashamed of himself working for a16z. reactionary VC ghouls
He has bills to pay like the rest of us, and considering he left traditional games media to start a crowdfunded project (NoClip), I doubt he would take a deal like this unless he needed to.
yeah i’m sure this top 1% acclaimed journalist had no other options
Switch has been using demos. A lot of them, too.
Demo or beta testers?
