Word just hit from EA that their Battlefield: Bad Company 2 demo is “on pace to become the fastest downloaded demo in EA history”. It has been downloaded to Xbox 360s and PS3s more than two million times.
In the past week EA has also said that its Dante’s Inferno demo was downloaded three million times, which, if I may inject some expert analysis here, is better than I thought it would do.
Just last month, we reported that the Gran Turismo 5 demo/time-trial had been downloaded a million times in a month.
A year ago we reported that the Resident Evil 5 demo had cracked 1.8 million downloads, more than a million of them in the first three days of availability.
What I’ve yet to see a company make public is the number of people who buy the game after having downloaded the demo. It’s not like that would tell us whether the demo convinced people to buy the game, though. After all, folks who want a game may get a demo just to have part of the game early. But I have heard some developers wonder if demos sometimes turn people off from games – or even satiate the desire for the game, making the gamer who gets it feel like they now don’t need to spend money and get more of the experience.
Demos are popular. The numbers confirm it. But do they work? That’s still an open question.
Isaac
Friday, February 12, 2010 at 9:25 AMI had no intention of buying Dante’s Inferno before the demo came out, I wasn’t even interested in any of the news leading up to it’s release before the demo.
After I had played the demo it became a 1st-day release buy.
Awnshegh
Friday, February 12, 2010 at 9:39 AMOnly played Dante’s Inferno demo once. Loved the direction but once I read the reviews decided against it. BC2 on the other hand I’ve played numerous times and am only waiting to here for definite if we’re getting Australian servers before deciding to buy and this will be irrespective of reviews.
Mr Waffle
Friday, February 12, 2010 at 10:09 AMPlayed the Dante’s Inferno demo. Quit in disgust after seeing how much it ripped off GoW (even to the point of that boat crashing at the start looking EXACTLY THE SAME as the first GoW’s opening dock level). Tried it again later, managed to get to the end. Still disgusted.
DansDans
Friday, February 12, 2010 at 11:13 AMI logged into the BFBC2 demo – was shot within 5 seconds by someone I couldnt see
My second life started and was shot again, by someone I couldnt see, within the space of a few more seconds
If this is as good as it gets, I’ll stick to MW2
Jo
Monday, February 15, 2010 at 3:03 PMOdd, getting shot by some camper I could not see seemed to be the whole MW2 experience.
And yes, I played it quite a lot.
bob
Monday, February 22, 2010 at 2:16 PMA good way to avoid getting shot by campers is to turn your system off and go for a nice walk outside and rejoin society!
But it’s more fun to make it your personal goal to find that camper by any means necessary and take him down, even if it means he kills you 5 times, as long as you get him in the end it makes it all worth it!!!
Glen
Monday, February 22, 2010 at 1:07 PMIt seems Dans found the spawn on squadmate being shot at by a tank button.