Good news: the Xbox One has game demos! Bad news: they’re kind of annoying to find.
You can’t see the free versions of each game in the Xbox One store itself — and there aren’t all that many available yet (though Microsoft’s Larry Hryb promises to keep us updated) — so if you want to find demos for the likes of FIFA and NBA Live, you’ll have to search yourself. Two easy steps:
1) Say “Xbox, Bing” or select the Bing search bar on the main menu.
2) Say or type “demos.” Here’s what you’ll see:
Note: these instructions also apply if you’re looking to find the album Independiente + Demos by Ricardo Arjona, which includes tracks like Mi novia se me está poniendo vieja and Lo que está bien está mal.
Comments
21 responses to “How To Find Demos On Xbox One”
why do they make things so hard…. why not put it front and centre in the store for us to find
Microsoft seem to just be terrible at designing apps. The Surface had the exact same problem – all the core apps were pretty much proof of concept demos and programs handicapped by corporate objectives like pushing people onto their cloud based services. The Surface’s video app lacks extremely basic functionality. Their mail app can’t handle a POP3 account.
I’ve got a Windows Phone that can’t sync with my older copy of Outlook (like every previous version) because they’re trying to shovel people over to their cloud based Outlook/Office services.
Bizarre that this article is even required.
Ah, I see you have the machine that goes ‘Bing!’. This is my favorite. You see, we lease this back from the company we sold it to – that way it comes under the monthly current budget and not the capital account… Xbone…designed by accountants…
I UNDERSTOOD THAT REFERENCE!
Seriously every time somebody says Xbox, Bing! that scene pops into my head…
Monty Python : The Meaning of Life
LOVE IT!
I had looked on two occasions and was of the view that there were no demos available… I am an early adopter so I expected some of this pain but agree it should be a core feature from day one. The one thing that I keep thinknig of is that the Xbone OS feels that it lacks features or is missing some things that I would have expected.. But then i realise that due to that massive policy change, plenty of these ideas had to be put on hold so I expect that things will get better… they have shown an ability to listen to feedback and make improvements so im very optimistic that this will just take some time.
Having three suggestion style tabs but no demo tab isn’t the result of a change in direction. The store shouldn’t have changed too much. At least not at this level.
I say it’s inexcusable not because it some how offends me but because I literally can’t think of an excuse for not putting a demo tab in. It’s confusing. There’s just no reason to have demos but not have a demo tab. The XBOX 360 did a great job of all this, even on day one, but the XBOX One store feels like they accidentally packaged in the placeholder version instead of the real thing.
It just seems ridiculous to me. It’s not like this is something Microsoft do exclusively to keep gamers happy, it’s something they do to score conversions and actually make money. Like the article shows the demos are there, they just didn’t put a tab in for them. If they didn’t have the demos I could say maybe they figured the cost of bandwidth was too high to give away demos on modern games.
If you go to ‘games’ and scroll right there’s the top 3 demos right there, with a small box underneath marked ‘…’ that opens a window to the rest of the demos.
Who would have thought the demo tab would be in the ‘games’ section?!?
Alternatively you can use the method listed above which also seems pretty common sense.
Seriously, there’s plenty wrong with the Xbone frontend (can I complain again about having to ‘snap’ a third of my screen to listen to a custom soundtrack?) but this isn’t really an issue.
EDIT: That should say ‘store’ section, I think….. sorry I don’t have my Xbone in front of me.
Either way I found the demos without really having to look for them.
Ok. I’m sitting in front of my XBOX One right now. I’ve gone from the Home screen directly to the Games section via the Store screen. First up, I’ve got ‘Featured’. No ‘…’ more button on that folder. Next up I’ve got Search Games, Use a code and an ad for Powerstar Golf. Next folder is New Releases. It has a more button. Next I’ve got the Add on folder (and for some reason they’re flipping back and forward between proper labelled folders and blanks, which is really weird if you’re used to Windows 8’s start screen properly). Next up Top Games Right Now. Again, there’s a more button but it’s not what you’d use to find demos. Popular with Friends is next. Recommended for You after that. Then Top Selling and finally Top Rated.
If I’m missing something please point it out, but from where I’m sitting there’s no demo section or index for all games. The way described in this article appears to be the best way of finding demos, and frankly it’s so stupid I don’t believe it was intentional.
If anything I’d expect them to emphasise demos for early adopters in the hopes they’d buy more games early and keep the revenue up
Although remember that it’s been proven that demos actually result in fewer sales on average.
I still cant find out how to just Browse through all the games. There’s no browse by letter or genre options. Am i missing something ?
Every iteration of the Xbox 360 interface made playing games harder, good to see xbone makes it even worse. Why waste your time on games when there’s music and movies and ADS AND ADS AND ADS to consume instead?
There’s considerably fewer ads on the Xbone. But eh, it’s fun to complain.
…and that statement will remain true for how long?…MS are sorting out their ad revenue streams for the bone as people start to jump on board…it’s going to get worse…lots worse.
“MS are sorting out their ad revenue streams for the bone as people start to jump on board”
Proof or assumption?
Assumption obviously…but what medium exists on the planet that won’t ring every silver dollar from shoving ads in your face…
The manufacture and distribution of methamphetamines
I don’t really complain about it but I find any ads on my console at all irritating. I don’t even like the stealth ‘recommended games’ ads. They started a really obnoxious trend with the XBOX 360 of slapping their advertisements on my console and whether the XBOX One has more or less ads is sort of irrelevant. I paid full price for a console and XBOX Live Gold Membership, but they still treat me like I’m playing a free to play browser game.
Here I thought there were no demos to be had on the system. Thanks for the tip.
So basically, search for demos?
I guess it’s kind of annoying to have to search instead of placing them someplace obvious, but it sounds pretty simple to me.