Prey developer claims that Steam's 2-hour refund policy acts as a PC Demo

Yeah no, that's not what that is for.

Imagine the whole "we sold over x million copies on steam" argument when 50% of them got refunded as "demos"... not what that system is intended for....
 
Wow that is such a lazy cop out.

They could have simply had a timed version of the game, From the moment you start the game you have 30 minutes to play then it locks you out until you buy.
 
more idiots

I have never paid for a demo, even if you can get a refund this makes the 'demo' available only to those who can afford to pay upfront for it.
 
Ask steam

I had a period during my vacation at the end of last year when I bought a couple of games, that turned out to really suck, after the 3th game Steam was like: Steam refund is not for testing games, please read reviews and/or the content in the store before buying, the next refund you make, will have to be reviewed manually and won't be refunded within 24 hours...

Ok fine I refunded games like I was loaning book in a library, but they looked fun, atleast till I found the technical issues (locked at 60/30 fps, choppy gameplay or overal bad animation quality) that I couldn't quite find without trying them on my system... Atleast I still had Xcom 2 to enjoy.
 
smilertoo said:
I have never paid for a demo, even if you can get a refund this makes the 'demo' available only to those who can afford to pay upfront for it.
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If you can't afford to pay for it you aren't going to buy it anyways.

I have no problem with this, why put the extra effort into making a demo when there is a system in place which can be used for that instead. If you don't want to deal with spending the time to refund it, watch a gameplay video or a stream. If you want to know whether the game runs properly, read the steam reviews.
 
SuB said:
Yeah no, that's not what that is for.

Imagine the whole "we sold over x million copies on steam" argument when 50% of them got refunded as "demos"... not what that system is intended for....
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I wonder if refunds are taken out of the stats? I also wonder if they keep stats on how many games are refunded. It would be interesting.
 
SeekaX said:
If you can't afford to pay for it you aren't going to buy it anyways.

I have no problem with this, why put the extra effort into making a demo when there is a system in place which can be used for that instead. If you don't want to deal with spending the time to refund it, watch a gameplay video or a stream. If you want to know whether the game runs properly, read the steam reviews.
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Playing an actual game is different to watching it, Yeah sure it can still be enjoyable if you're into that type of thing but it's still different to actually doing it yourself.

Plenty of times I've played demos, Not liked them then not bought the game but the opposite is also true, I've played demos loved the game and then bought it.

They could have easily put a time limit on the game of maybe 30-60 minutes from the moment you press play, Not doing so is simply laziness.
 
Well I played the the trial on my Xbox One and I kinda liked it. Wasn't going to go out of my way to get it, but it would've been on my "in a few months" list for my PC.

After a statement like that towards PC gamers though it's gone into the "maybe when it's under £10 and I'm bored" list. Absolutely disrespectful behavior.
 
Dicehunter said:
Playing an actual game is different to watching it, Yeah sure it can still be enjoyable if you're into that type of thing but it's still different to actually doing it yourself.

Plenty of times I've played demos, Not liked them then not bought the game but the opposite is also true, I've played demos loved the game and then bought it.

They could have easily put a time limit on the game of maybe 30-60 minutes from the moment you press play, Not doing so is simply laziness.
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Nah, I dont like that concept.

Imagine you play 30mins get locked but are still undecided. Perhaps you played it, had a bad experience because of your old GPU, bought a new GPU and thought "hmm maybe ill give PREY another go with this card now" Too late, you burned your trial time already.

A demo should be available indefinately just like the days of old. Not everyone is fully convinced within even the first 24hours. I suppose EA had a better method with timed trial in that it gave you around 48hours but even then, I would prefer to test/experience a new purchase in my own time not on their time.

I actually think up to now, if you cant play a demo, just view some twitch gamers playing. Its quite convenient on Xbone where you can view others testing it, see their reactions etc. Not perfect but gives good insight. Xbone even provides us with many demos to test and does allow some saves and features to transfer over to the full game.

long story short. Give us a proper demo, we are fed up with excuses and misdirection.
 
jimma47 said:
I wonder if refunds are taken out of the stats? I also wonder if they keep stats on how many games are refunded. It would be interesting.
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Steam do, my point is you could very easily use the sales figures without including the refunds to artificially inflate your sales numbers to whoever you need to by using a buy-only demo and refund if you don't like it method. It's pretty crap.
 
SuB said:
Steam do, my point is you could very easily use the sales figures without including the refunds to artificially inflate your sales numbers to whoever you need to by using a buy-only demo and refund if you don't like it method. It's pretty crap.
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Yep 100% agree. I was thinking games like no mans sky etc.

I guess demos have pretty much been replaced by early access and beta tests these days.
 
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