Wii U demo play limit decided by publishers, not Nintendo

[robometal cowboy]

Wii U demo play limit decided by publishers, not Nintendo
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"Each publisher has the opportunity to decide how long demos will stay on the eShop, and how many times consumers can play them before they expire." - Nintendo spokesperson

What Nintendo doesn't say is whether or not a publisher can choose 'unlimited' as one o the options. I'm thinking the best they can offer is 30 play sessions.

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[Hyperfludd]

It's very silly.

[internet]

even on xbox live , i never played a demo more than a few times , of course the prices of those games tend to fall quickly

[Almightyderek]

There is one demo on the 3DS eShop with unlimited plays, and that's Final Fantasy: Theater Rhythem. So my guess it is possible for them to pick unlimited. Also 30 is plenty for most people, although I download a lot of demos on my son's 3DS for free games and he has run out of quite a few of them. I ended up having to buy Lego Batman for him, so I guess it is a good idea to have limits.

[Turner4590]

It's ridiculous to whine about having a limit on the demo. If you play a demo 10-30 times over and over again, what the hell is wrong with you. Just buy the full game already.

[NF]

I figured it was the publishers when I got the 2 demos today (Rayman and Sonic Racing). Wait... you do know Sonic Racing also has a demo right?

Anyhow, the Rayman demo is pretty good. Not like the original crappy PSN demos where I used to get 2 minutes of play and that's it. If you have an issue with 30 plays on Rayman... just leave the Wii U on all day.

[MoldyClay]

The only demos that really have a reason to be played multiple times are ones that can send save data over (like the new Pokemon Mystery Dungeon or The Denpa Men), but the concept of arbitrary limits is still absurd since nobody else does it.

But good to know it is developers to blame. Since they think people don't buy the games because they are "playing the demos instead" when in fact, it's because the demos make games seem pretty bad. They play it once, hate it, and don't buy it.

@Turner4590

You realize most demos (in the real world) come out BEFORE a game is out, so you CAN'T buy it, right?

People complain because there is no reason, and nobody else does it. Not necessarily because they need to.

And like I said above, some games actually use the save data from the demo. So there is legitimately a reason to keep playing those to get things before the game comes out.

[GeneticRepoMan]

*shrugs*

The limit is pretty pointless, but it's so petty of a problem I can't really find myself to care.

I really don't see anyone EVER running into a problem with the limit.

For example, Adventure Time's demo has 5, which is VERY small, but the demo is so short and there's little to no deviation you can make in the demo that there really isn't a point to play it again, if you really want to try it again you've got four more chances.

I really don't see anyone playing the Adventure Time demo over and over again (except to hear the opening song, I guess that's a legit point, but thank goodness for youtube!)

As far as games like Denpa Men, you get 30 plays with that. That's more than plenty. If you've run out of plays and want the game. . .buy it. If you've run out of plays before it came out then just wait. The demo is meant to test the game out, not get access to it early and make progress, not that that's not a nice feature though! I really wish a lot more demoes would save, like the Epic Mickey demo. I thought the demo really dragged on story wise and since it couldn't be skipped so I really wished you could save and then just continue in the game from there. But I know that's a sticky situation since cart games save onto the cart and not the 3DS. . .but I digress I'm getting off track.

But again, that's just my two cents, since there's really no point for this everybody has a right to complain and voice their opinion on it.

[Tyeforce]

Has everyone forgotten about the Theatrhythm Final Fantasy demo on the 3DS? Publishers CAN choose to make their demos unlimited, but only Square Enix has done it so far with one of their demos.

[shingi70]

Demos usually hit before the game is released and shouldn't have limits.

The forza horizon demohit before the game and while the demo is straight forward it had preview of the online speed stats componett. So while I finsihed the demo I went back to it mutiple times to trump people's time onmy rivals list. This also carried over into the real game.

Same thing with the crackdown demo which I played more than 30 times because that type game is fun and it had online to play coop in the demo.

I think it comes down to microsoft and sony not doing this.

[Roth]

I'm not too bothered by this. I'd rather them go by the number of demo plays than have timed demos. The demo is a good peak into the full game.

[theimporter]

Greedy game companies

[Seroth]

Why did Nintendo even build in the limits in the first place?

Also, I hate how people are acting like people who play demos a lot should be ostracized from society. Sometimes I just like to play a free, stripped down version of a game just 'cause I want to.

[M1]

Why did Nintendo even build in the limits in the first place?

Also, I hate how people are acting like people who play demos a lot should be ostracized from society. Sometimes I just like to play a free, stripped down version of a game just 'cause I want to.

Because 3rd parties wanted it,

Nintendo was trying to give 3rd parties what they wanted in order to get them to support the systems.

Many PSN demos have expiration dates/times. So when you meet said date/time the demo is rendered unplayable or deleted.

Xbox Live demos don't have this.

[Zanreo]

Eh, not too bothered by this. Before I've played the demo that many times I've usually made up my mind about if I might want the game or not.