How can we pre-load Civ V, but not be able to play the Demo?

[silentknight111]

I don't think the demo is meant to be a preview for everyone who can't wait to play Civ next week. It's meant to be a trial for people who aren't sure they want to buy the game. Releasing it early is basically like giving everyone a limited press copy to try out.

 

[caglejsc]

I don't think the demo is meant to be a preview for everyone who can't wait to play Civ next week. It's meant to be a trial for people who aren't sure they want to buy the game. Releasing it early is basically like giving everyone a limited press copy to try out.

Quoted For Truth

 

[mattigus]

The game is not "obviously ready", you can't know that. They will probably still fix and change some minor things until the last minute, and there will probably be a patch to download when release day comes and the game is unlocked.

If you look at the 2kdemo, it's pretty clear that while the main game is ready, there are still small graphic changes in progress and small bugs that need fixing.

The second half of the 2kdemo was from a previous build, so it is not a good example of the final product.

Also, a Steam preload usually means the game is done. The preloaded version of the game is the same version of the game that's getting stamped into discs and put into boxes for retailers. What Steam users have sitting in their computers is the completed version of the game.

However, if the final build still has bugs that are found after the preload, they might apply a day 1 patch. I think most game companies try to avoid that, since that's an open admission that they released an unfinished game.

 

[Tennyson]

So it's supposed to make money somehow for the retailers? I'd like to know how.

anyway, some said that it's not really ready to play because there might be a 0-day patch.

If firaxis feels the need to patch the game right on 0-day to make it actually ready to play, then the launch date is not going to be very enjoyable.

Retailers wield enormous influence over publishers, and any publisher who released their game digitally before it was available in stores would be frozen out of the most lucrative sales channel.

That will change someday but is the truth of things this week.

 

[Nightravn]

Why can't we have our cake and eat it too?

 

[timster]

Well, it makes money for the retailers because if people who bought online were able to play the second the game went gold, while people who bought in stores had to wait weeks for the game to go to press and be physically delivered around the world, retail sales would plummet and the retail industry would basically die.

Which is going to happen eventually anyway, but for now publishers would lose too many sales if bricks-and-mortar stores closed down. Publishers and retailers have a mutually beneficial business relationship, so each tries to keep the other happy.

The only thing that screws it up is when the b&m stores accidentally break street release date, and then the developer/publisher try to help out their pre-order customers by releasing ASAP, before the official release date. That's exactly what happened with Stardock's Elemental, which caused a LOT of miscommunication and overall a negative experience, as the Day 0 patch contained a LOT of bugfixes that the gold copy (that was released early) didn't have. It quickly soured on them and Stardock ended up losing quite a bit of trust.

 

[feelotraveller]

The real purpose of the demo is to give the rest of the world something to play while the North Americans find all the bugs for us!