Not true, I discovered most of my late 90´s games because of demos, like Duke Nukem 3d, Terminal Velocity, Take no Prisoners... And also, those were demos! Blood demo were the whole first chapter, for example.

It can have whatever scores you like so long as a comparable range of reviewers called it things like "The most important thing to happen in video gaming in a decade/ever".

Did I ever say I was "for" limiting second hand sales? Anyone who reads this forum regularly knows I am against any such limitations. I was only quoting that part about review embargoes. I would think my response would have made that clear even if my quoting job was sloppy.

Regardless, your argument is basically "they want to do something to make more money, so they should make less money". How about we just say, "No, you don't have the right to limit second hand sales", because it's both the truth and I doubt anyone is qualified to make a "trade" on behalf of gamers and the industry?

Yeah I'm shocked how paying customers always get all the consideration!

Oh bullshit (and this is going in circles)! You don't pre-order, so you can read reviews fine. You can ask your friends fine. You can read user reviews fine. You can watch Let's Plays and other Youtube videos fine.

Let's just call this demo whining what it is, entitlement. Dress it up however you want, you feel entitled to demos. If demos made more money or made sense for the industry they'd already be doing it. If consumers refused to buy because they didn't offer a demo, they'd be doing it. Guess what, none of that is true, and a sense of entitlement is going to do fuck all to change it.

So, if you want demos, figure out something that actually benefits the publishers. Because "I want" is pretty unlikely to get you what you want.

And how do you know what a demo costs? Do you know how many man hours goes into one? Do you know what certification and support for a demo costs? Then how could you possibly know?

But let's just put some icing on this cake, shall we? Name the last 5 games that you were not going to buy, but purchased at or near full price AFTER playing the demo and only because of the demo. I have a feeling this will be awesome.
Games you bought in the 90s or recently? Because they're not really in the business of propping up long tail sales at the expense of new release sales. And if it was in the 90s, did you stop buying new games since then? How do you decide now? Are demos really that necessary if you're still able to make purchasing decisions?

No my argument is that even thought it might not always directly increase their sales it doesn't mean they should stop doing it (It's nothing uncommon for companies to do things that doesn't necessarily directly increase their profit but might benefit them in other ways, PR stuff, etc...). Especially as nowadays there have create several "advantages" for themselves that they didn't had years ago.

Never said "I want", I said "they should" continue to release demos.

That was the point of my "second sales" paragraph you misread earlier, I personally don't use demo, not anymore. I stopped needing them when I nearly totally stopped purchasing new games years ago because of the DRMs, my current "demo" are the PS3 versions of the games that I borrow from my peoples I know.

But even thought I personally don't use them anymore doesn't mean that I think it's a good idea to stop releasing them.

Well, I already did exactly what you ask for here in my first post, but since the question was not directed at me, I'll stop being such an attention whore. :D

(Besides, all of those were indie games, I hardly ever buy AAA titles at release and for full price.)

Unless you live in a very internet regulated country with strong anti-piracy laws why not download the games and try them? If you don't like them throw them away and if you like it buy it. It's a pity Gaikai didn't pull off. Time limited access via streaming to get a sense of how a game works and feels before you buy it.

Problem is that most people will try until completed and skip the buying step. Also it would almost everywhere being illegal, even in Sweden I guess.

A lighter version might be to have a lot of video game addicted friends and then all of them buy one game and everybody tries it and if they are satisfied they each buy it.

This is about how everyone with a console still does it.

Heeyy... I know it's been a long time and all... but I'm a very annoying person...and I just wanted to point out that Recettear is 66% off today...

If I would decide to get the game, I'd rather have the DRM-free version than a Steam key, especially considering that I might have to wait for a better rig before I can run it smoothly, but thanks for the heads up all the same! :)

Interesting mini essay on this subject:

http://indiegames.com/2013/06/the_demo_is_dead_revisited_by_.html

edit - fixed link

You can argue over all you want, but what was said in Extra Credits episode is mostly right. Obviously in a perfect world video games publishers would feel responsible for gamer's experience, but in the world of our everyday down-to-earth economy the point of releasing the demo is not to make consumers sure they now what they spend their money on, but simply to sell a product. Having that in mind most studios won't put their time and money into crafting and cutting out a piece of content that won't help to sell their game anyway.

Edit: Just checked the date of most posts here, looks like there's a lot of stale threads appearing on the front page of this forum. :/