Suggested Antipiracy Weapon For Ubi (merged)

[jerm138]

Originally Posted by floundericiousWA

Releasing a free demo is a great way to prevent piracy. If the only way to even TRY a game is to get a warez copy, then people have a massive incentive to "try" the cracked game.

I hadn't considered that, but I think it's very true.

If a casual gamer can TRY it for free (demo), then they're more likely to spring the $50, instead of just gambling away $50 on a game they could end up hating because it's not their style.

The ONLY reason I got into SH3/SH4 is because SH3 was on sale at Steam for $5. Having never played a submarine game before, I would have never even CONSIDERED paying $50 for one without knowing what it's like. BUT... if I had played a demo and saw just how great it was, I would have paid the full $50 for it if need-be. I lucked out and got into the game late and only got set back $20 for SH3, SH4, and U-Boat Missions.

On the flipside of that... if you put out a free demo, it had better be a DAMN good product or you'll lose a lot of sales.... a risk that some companies might not be willing to take.

I play a lot of demos, and they often lead to a sale. I can only think of a couple times where I bought a game without trying it first or playing another version of it.