In this episode of "By Design" - we explore the past, present, and future of the game "demo". Are demos a relic of the past or a necessary component in makin...
Fair enough, I do it all the time and so do people in my friend group. There’s a new game, it’s on sale, I know I buy games on steam regularly, I buy the game, I try it, it doesn’t work, it’s not fun, something. I return it within the 2-hour window fairly regularly.
In fact, this steam two hour window has been part of game developer philosophy for a while, putting the good content first, so you don’t get bored before the 2 hours expire. There’s been a fair few reviews where people speculate this was just front-loaded so people don’t return it
I send my refunds to my Steam wallet. Either I eventually get a “free” game that I like or I get to keep trying until I find a keeper.
As someone who has used the refund system a lot, you can exceed the 2 hours. I don’t know if they look at my Steam account or just accept my reasoning for a refund but I know I’ve received a full refund for games that were well past that 2 hour mark.
But it’s a very small minority. You’re cutting out like 90+% of a potential demo audience by demanding cash on the barrel head up front. It’s objectively worse for the customer by a significant margin.
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My goal is just to have a community where people can go and see what new game news is out for the day and comment on it.
It’s entirely different, though.
I’m not going to pay to try a game and lean on a refund. I just won’t play it at all.
Fair enough, I do it all the time and so do people in my friend group. There’s a new game, it’s on sale, I know I buy games on steam regularly, I buy the game, I try it, it doesn’t work, it’s not fun, something. I return it within the 2-hour window fairly regularly.
In fact, this steam two hour window has been part of game developer philosophy for a while, putting the good content first, so you don’t get bored before the 2 hours expire. There’s been a fair few reviews where people speculate this was just front-loaded so people don’t return it
I send my refunds to my Steam wallet. Either I eventually get a “free” game that I like or I get to keep trying until I find a keeper.
As someone who has used the refund system a lot, you can exceed the 2 hours. I don’t know if they look at my Steam account or just accept my reasoning for a refund but I know I’ve received a full refund for games that were well past that 2 hour mark.
There are people who do; I’m not disputing that.
But it’s a very small minority. You’re cutting out like 90+% of a potential demo audience by demanding cash on the barrel head up front. It’s objectively worse for the customer by a significant margin.
That’s a good point. I agree with that. It adds friction.
It’s the defacto demonstration of last resort, at that point somebody’s just using it to escape from a bad purchase.