Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony share views on demos of downloadable games

Though the prime three have all wired their next generation consoles for downloadable video games, Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony have different ideas on whether demos should be put out for such short bursts of entertainment or not. Microsoft and Sony’s perspectives seem to occupy different ends of the spectrum, while Nintendo – who’s just coming round to pushing original downloadable games themselves – stands on whatever the developer decides upon. More at the full story.

Now that Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony are slated to parallel each other in delivering downloadable games of original intellectual properties, the three video game console’s makers are now faced with another challenge: demos. Though demos are popular in the PC and Mac side of online distributed gaming, not all believe that the approach would follow ideally for consoles.

In fact, after interviews with the go-to guys for Microsoft’s Xbox Live, Sony’s PlayStation Network, and Nintendo’s WiiWare project board, MTV says that none of them had uniform responses on the matter. Microsoft’s Jeremy Wacksman says that demos are essential, while Sony’s John Hight would rather skip demos entirely. Nintendo’s Tom Prata, in contrast, believes that decision is up to the developers themselves.

In short, demos are not required for Nintendo’s WiiWare. “Again, weÂ’re not inclined to require [demos] from developers,” reiterated Prata. The Nintendo Wii’s soon-to-launch Everybody’s Nintendo Channel offers ways for prospective customers to plow through any available news, previews ,and reviews of WiiWare. The channel, according to the senior director of project development, will help alleviate the need for demos.

But Sony Computer Entertainment America’s (SCEA) Santa Monica Studios has encountered turbulence with demos after Blast Factor (take a peek at the arcade shooter here) didn’t garner the same amount of downloads its demo version did.

So though Sony provides a vessel for hosting and offering them, the game developer studio doesn’t believe it’s beneficial. “IÂ’m not sure a few minutes with a demo would do [our game] justice,” concluded Hight.

But Wacksman opines that downloadable games should stick to the old, tried and tested, and successful marketing scheme, because it’s simply a must. The manner at which downloadable games are marketed inherit a lot of facets from the casual gaming industry on the PC and Mac. That industry has done very well over the past years despite the decline of mainstream games. Wacksman also added:

[Xbox Live] gets smaller-budget games that doesn’t [sic] have a big marketing campaign – this is their marketing. We’re going to do a great job of getting the trial into people’s hands, and then the game can help sell itself.

Wacksman said that customers depend on trials to reinforce their purchase decisions. And judging by the other short, teasing trials popping by the thousands all over the Internet, we’d be inclined to say that many share the same notion. Do you?