Demos Are Back, Baby!

One pleasant trend with games in 2024, seems to be the return of the demo. After seemingly becoming a thing of the past, or inadequately replaced by timed trials, available only at high tiers of subscription services, like playstation premium, demos seem to be making quite the comeback. 

When I first started gaming, demos were pretty few and far between. It was the era of solely disc or cartridge based media, so you couldn’t just download a demon off an online store. At the time, just the idea of an online store would have boggled the mind. I never even got my ps2 to  connect to the internet. 

Back then, the only demo I really remember was a sneak peak for Final fantasy 12. It came as a separate disc with one of the other square enix titles I bought, Dragon Quest VIII. Unlike more modern demos, it gave you two choices of stages to play, then plopped you into gameplay with no context, and hardly any tutorials. 

Once we reached the ps3 and xbox 360 era of gaming, digital gaming really took off. Having a digital storefront gave players access to the whole library of games available on demand. No more having to leave your house, deal with store hours, or even any staff. It’s easy to see why buying games digitally became the norm, it really is convenient. 

Alongside this new digital frontier came another major selling point, the demo. Being able to download a demo for a game you might be interested in was a great way to decide if a title was worth your time or money. Oftentimes demos come out ahead of the game’s release date and can serve as a way to build hype for the release of the game. 

I remember having times when I couldn’t decide what I wanted to play next, so I would spend a whole day just downloading demos of whatever seemed interesting. I would play it until my interest waned, then simply delete it, and move on to the next one. Before, if I didn’t know what to play next, I would have to bother my parents until they took me to the local game rental store. 

Demos usually come in a few flavors, starting from the beginning of the game and letting you play a few hours, usually able to carry over your progress when you buy the game. For some more mission based games, usually they let you jump around a little more, playing some tutorial missions, then a more difficult mission with more options at your disposal. Finally, we have my favorite kind of demo, a totally unique experience.

I love being able to see the opening hours of a game, then bring that progress over if I decide to buy a game. It’s a great way to come to grips with the story, setting, and get your head around the mechanics of the game. Those demos though, don’t leave me with a lasting impression. It just feels like an early taste of the game, not a unique experience. 

Probably the most famous demo is the P.T (playable trailer) demo, for a number of reasons. It was meant to tease players about an upcoming silent hill game directed by Hideo Kojima alongside Guillermo del Toro. It was a short, horror experience where the player walks down a hallway multiple times, with things becoming more and more distorted each time. 

This upcoming title in the Silent Hills franchise was then canceled, and the demo was taken off the digital storefronts. However, people who already had the demo installed were able to play the demo.

This led to playstations with the demo still installed becoming very valuable. Over the years people have tried to recreate this demo in various game engines, and it’s considered one of the best horror experiences in gaming. It’s also a wholly unique experience.

For me, my favorite demo is, weirdly, the Final Fantasy 15 platinum demo. Now, you may know I don’t particularly care for that game, but this demo which came ahead of the game’s launch, sure got my hopes up.

In this demo you play as a young Noctis navigating the world of dreams. I remember this demo looking beautiful, the story was fun and whimsical, with enough to make me interested in the game and the broader world. 

In a different direction, we have the Resident Evil 7 Teaser Demo: Beginning Hour. This demo somehow managed to convince me, known scaredy cat, that I would be able to handle a horror game.

This short demo follows a different protagonist and helps set up the world and characters of the main game. I was scared, but intrigued, and I thought my curiosity would help offset my fear and let me enjoy this horrifying game. I was wrong, but the demo went a long way in convincing me to give it a shot. 

While demos are pretty much unequivocally good for players, it gives us a chance to test out a title before committing a big chunk of change to something we may not enjoy, that may not be true for the people making the demos.

Some reports show that demos can actually be pretty harmful to a game’s sales, as some people might be turned off after trying the game. It makes sense to me, if you aren’t sure if you might enjoy a game, you might still buy it. If you’ve played the demo, and know the game isn’t for you, you probably won’t be picking it up. 

This realization was likely part of why demos became less commonplace around the start of the ps4/Xbox One generation. There was what felt like a long drought of games getting demos, and it seemed to be less of a common practice.

Many people speculated why, like the decrease in sales, the resources it required from developers, or games just not having a format that would be compatible with a demo. It was probably a bit of all of these things, and I worried the demo may not be coming back. 

Thankfully, I was wrong! A big factor in the return of game demos was likely Steam Next Fest. In 2020, Steam had it’s Steam Game Festival (Now named Steam Next Fest), which offered demos for over 500 different titles.

Since then, each year Steam Next Fest offers demos for hundreds of different titles, and sees a big surge in traffic and attention given to titles. This largely fuels Steam’s economy, and urges players to add titles to their wishlist, which is a factor in the algorithm which decides which titles are promoted on the steam store. 

Thanks to this resurgence of demos on steam, this practice has spread across platforms, and it feels like more and more games get demos ahead of their release date. Just this year, I’ve played the Granblue Fantasy: Relink demo, the Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth demo, and the Unicorn Overlord demo. Three spectacular demos that only served to reaffirm my interest in picking up those titles. 

In my case, demos tend to make me more excited for a game, but also more impatient. I usually try to avoid playing demos too early, otherwise I’ll suddenly lose interest in everything else I’m playing. Being able to finally play a game yourself is so vastly different to reading reviews, trailers, or watching gameplay footage.

Gaming, at least for me, is so often about how it feels to play the game, the sensations or emotions that you experience when inputting the actions and receiving feedback. Demos are the best, if not only way, for me to really get that experience. 

I’m so glad that demos have made a resurgence lately, and I hope this trend continues. It gives you a nice taste of a game, either before release, or when you’re considering a title that may not be your usual cup of tea. It lets you experience things that can’t quite be captured, and lets you reckon with a game on your own terms. Gaming is such a personal experience, and getting hands on with a game via a demo goes a long way. Demos are back, baby!