Crytek boss: free game demos 'prohibitively expensive'

by Mike Schramm on Apr 17th 2010 8:00AM

Crytek co-founder Cevat Yerli tells Develop that you might be paying money just for the privilege of trying Crysis 2 before it comes out. Yerli calls free game demos an antiquated "luxury" that have become "prohibitively expensive" to produce. The result: many studios will either stop releasing them or try to charge for an early test of the game. EA has already brought this idea up as "pre-launch DLC," and Yerli says that what EA is "really trying to do is get investment back but while being as fair to the gamer as much as it can." He continues, "Ultimately, it will be a better deal for the gamer."

Yerli says his company hasn't yet decided whether there will be a demo for Crysis 2 or not, though he thankfully admits that a paid demo should be "something more than a small demo released for free." Takeaway is the same, regardless: because of the development cost of building a giveaway level or two before launch, Yerli says the days of free demos are numbered.

[Via BigDownload]

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Tags: cevat-yerli, crytek, demo, develop, ea, Electronic-Arts, free-demo, gameplay, Microsoft, pdlc, pre-launch-dlc, Xbox-360

Reader Comments (251)

What if radio was just a bunch of executives on the air saying how AWESOME this or that song of theirs was. You wouldn't actually get to hear the song until you bought it. That is what this is like.

I think the real thinking behind this is that if they don't give out demos, we purchasers won't realize how SUCK the game is until it is too late. I certainly have been planning to buy a game, but then changed my mind because the demo was awful.

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