RSS
Speaking to OXM, Valve’s confirmed that Left 4 Dead 2 pre-orderers will get a stab at the demo early.
Anyone pre-ordering the 360 version or pre-purchasing the PC version over Steam will get to look at the multiplayer demo early. It’ll be released later for the unbelievers.
Viewing 19 responses
David said:
I’m down with that only question is what retailer will the offer be available too ?
DrDamn said:
Once upon a time demos were used to let players try a game and decide if they wanted to buy it …
David said:
If your a fan of L4D you will be buying L4D2 you don’t need to decide anything. The demo is just to give people who love the series a taster of the full game.
In short a tease to fuel bigger sales.
ultrabrilliant said:
I don’t see the benefit of getting a demo a bit earlier than everyone else. Who’s really that impatient?
freedoms_stain said:
If this is supposed to be a pre-order booster it’d probably do better if it was available to everyone – unless of course they’re not confident in the strength of their product. Of course this demo is likely to be very very short considering your average L4D scenario is barely the length of a standard demo in its own right. If they’re not careful they could give a quarter of the game away.
David said:
they did this same exact thing for the first one only this time they know people want to play versus that is why the demo is MP rather than what the first one which was SP.
I’ll be pre-ordering as I definitely want a taster of the MP.
_S_E_R_G_ said:
Nooo!
Again this early demo. And usual demo works only 1 week till release l4d2.
anasui said:
“If your a fan of L4D you will be buying L4D2 you don’t need to decide anything. The demo is just to give people who love the series a taster of the full game.”
by your logic, people who love the series don’t need to play a demo to get a taste of the game, yet they still get a demo
that’s not what demos are for, I reckon
David said:
example of what will no doubt happen:
People pre-order they play the MP, they love it and can’t stop raving on about it to their friends. Their friends go out and buy it hence more sales are generated.
It even says it in the article “With Left 4 Dead in particular we’ve found that word of mouth really is the strongest thing,” Its very transparent why they are doing it.
DrDamn said:
So why not make the demo available for as many people as possible as early as possible? Wouldn’t that generate the most sales? What they are doing is making people pre-order before they can play – which as Anasui points out is not what demos are for.
David said:
lol because there would be no incentive to pre-order now would there ?
A demo is a marketing tool and valve are using it to their advantage. No one is forcing you to pre-order but if you do you get to play the MP early.
Ingenu said:
Thank you Valve! Pre-ordering as soon as I can find out which retailers will be participating.
/eternally salivating for L4D2
Michael O'Connor said:
Isn’t the whole point of a demo to try and convince you to get the game in the first place..?
Doesn’t this… kinda defeat the point?
DrDamn said:
@David
The usual idea is – get people to play demo – they think oh that’s pretty swanky and they pre-order. If you insist on the pre-order before you let people play the demo then that sends an interesting message about your confidence in the demo to generate pre-orders in the traditional way doesn’t it?
DrDamn said:
You are right in that a demo is no longer just a demo but a full on marketing tool. In the same way public “betas” are now largely marketing tools and very little to do with being a beta.
Ingenu said:
Michael O’Connor get with the program! Things are in a state of continual evolution – leave your antiquated ideals behind or be left behind yourself. Either way is fine with me =)
PS. <3 Valve
Jonarob said:
Demos usually come out for people who didn’t pre-order just before or around the time of a game’s retail release. The pre-order demo is just for nerds like myself who want a go of the game as soon as possible. Also, obviously, a massive pre-order incentive.
OrphanageExplosion said:
Think yourself lucky. At least you don’t need to give Future Publishing $30 for Qore to get early demos. Was punked into doing exactly that to get the Uncharted 2 beta and the latest “episode” was a waste of 1GB of bandwidth and an insult to my brain that was gradually numbing to the banality of this so-called “show”.
Jonarob said:
Man, that doesn’t even have a ‘U’ after the ‘Q’.