Opinions on Pre-order for beta/demo access?

[Sonic Angel Knight]

I was browsing the Playstation store, and i came across a pre-order for the 4th new Blazblue game, coming out in one week Tusday november 1st. In the description, it says you can play a demo if you pre-order the game. There is also call of duty infinite warfare that also says something similar. Truth is, i dunno why is like this but i don't very much like it.

The idea is to play the game before you decide if you like it or not to wanna buy and support it, but as we all know, there not refund for digital purchase. At this point is just trying to pressure people. For what reason i would not know that they do this for, is starting to become a bit more common than back before when we didn't have access to stuff like downloading games to consoles. We would get stuff like Brave Fencer Mushasi for Playstation and get demo of Final Fantasy VIII, it was just a different time back then. We also had demo disc as well.

Now is more like "Pre-order game to get exclusive early access to beta/demo before anyone else" When i thought the whole idea of a demo is to put together a playable DEMO-Stration of how the game would turn out and if player responds positive or negative. I don't feel i should have to pre purchase something to have a sample to determine if i want it, without no way to cancel. Sample first buy later people. How did this change?

 

[ars25]

I think bundling preorders with demos is a bad practice as in my eyes they are meant to provide a sample for people on the fence on buying the game. As for betas I think it's OK as they are "rewarding" you with early access to the game you preordered.

 

[Taleweaver]

I have mixed opinions on this. The obvious "a demo serves to get a taste of the gameplay so you can decide the game is good for you, so this practice undermines that principle" is already said, and a valid concern...

...assuming that the demo is strictly defined as being just about THAT. And I don't mean to be cynic, but for a lot of franchises you've got plenty of earlier games that will show you how the last entry will (more or less) play. The preorder, early access, open betas and so on serve something different: the fact that you can be among the FIRST to play a game. And seen in that light, this "get the demo after preordering" isn't as stupid as it sounds at first glance. My only real question is if that means they're going to stock demo's full of antipiracy measures as well?

 

[migles]

I think bundling preorders with demos is a bad practice as in my eyes they are meant to provide a sample for people on the fence on buying the game. As for betas I think it's OK as they are "rewarding" you with early access to the game you preordered.

in exchange you are free labour for them, you test the game for free and they don't only pay for testers but they receive money from testers