News Room Contributor Posts: 1264 Joined: 10 Apr 2007 | Xbox Live Head to Devs: Work on Your Demos
Xbox Live head David Edery is pressing game developers to put more work into their demos if they want to see higher sales.
The worldwide game portfolio manager for the Microsoft service said in a recent blog posting, "It's surprising how many developers don't think about their game's trial experience until the very last minute of the development process."
Edery was candid about the impact and importance of properly preparing a slice of the game experience as a means of enticing gamers: "A downloadable game's trial is everything. It doesn't matter if you licensed the three greatest IP of all time and fused them into the holy trinity of game design itself. ... If the trial stinks, most people won't bother to lift the curtain on the full experience," he said.
He said companies would be best served by ending their game demos on an intriguing story line note that whets the appetite.
He also panned the "upsell" message following most game demos that promise more of the same in a generic way.
"When ending the trial, that upsell screen is [potentially] the last thing your customer will see. Every other trial is promising 'more levels,' 'more characters,' blah, blah. Why is your game different?" he asked.
Source: Gamesindustry.biz
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News Room Contributor Posts: 4108 Joined: 12 Nov 2002 | He's right. A half-assed afterthought demo will put a bad taste in gamers' mouths that can be very difficult to wash out. No demo at all is better than a bad one. |
Paperboy Posts: 16 Joined: 27 Aug 2007 | Which is why they put in the "Silver users have to wait a week for demos" clause, right?
Because they want to entice devs to make good demos? |
Paperboy Posts: 13 Joined: 26 Mar 2004 | Pretty damned true, I was dead set on getting Guitar Hero 3 then I played the demo and decided I'd really rather not pay money for this with Rockband on the horizon. |
Xbox Live Head to Devs: Work on Your Demos
Xbox Live head David Edery is pressing game developers to put more work into their demos if they want to see higher sales.
The worldwide game portfolio manager for the Microsoft service said in a recent blog posting, "It's surprising how many developers don't think about their game's trial experience until the very last minute of the development process."
Edery was candid about the impact and importance of properly preparing a slice of the game experience as a means of enticing gamers: "A downloadable game's trial is everything. It doesn't matter if you licensed the three greatest IP of all time and fused them into the holy trinity of game design itself. ... If the trial stinks, most people won't bother to lift the curtain on the full experience," he said.
He said companies would be best served by ending their game demos on an intriguing story line note that whets the appetite.
He also panned the "upsell" message following most game demos that promise more of the same in a generic way.
"When ending the trial, that upsell screen is [potentially] the last thing your customer will see. Every other trial is promising 'more levels,' 'more characters,' blah, blah. Why is your game different?" he asked.
Source: Gamesindustry.biz
Permalink