3DS Demos Are Now Live, But...

Nintendo is apparently totally cool with demos again. Maybe? Demos suddenly appeared on WiiWare again without explanation, and now demos have appeared on the eShop for 3DS, as well.

The North American appearance of demos was announced yesterday but launched today, alongside a chance to check out Resident Evil: Revelations ahead of its February 7 release.

Nintendo hasn’t responded to my request for clarification on whether demos will always be available in the eShop, or if they’ll function like WiiWare demos once did and disappear after a while.

Even if the demos are always available, however, you can only play them 30 times before the demos “expire.” I didn’t even finish the Resident Evil: Revelations demo, but when I exited back to the main menu on the 3DS, it had already ticked down to 29. It’s likely other demos will work this way, too.

Dumb.

A coworker told me the RE: Revelations demo went live, first thing I noticed upon "unwrapping" it was that usage counter. I highly doubt I'll play it 30 times (only demos for games like Skate have ever gotten that much play from me) but it's still a silly and asinine restriction.

EDIT: First time I ever even tried to get that quest.

What a bizarre restriction...

Honestly though, why would you play one demo 30 times?

This is pointless. "Oh yeah! I'm going to play this same demo 30 times!" Uh, okay. What?

Seems pretty fair. I've yet to play a game demo 30 times. I am more interested about how many Japanese suits were involved in a meeting to decide that number. [Racist accent comment removed. -PsEG]

Also, regarding the image caption. If the cruise ship captain is Italian, I would be pretty f**king scared.

Seriously Patrick, who the fuck cares? It's a demo.

If you like a demo enough to play it 30 times, you should probably go get the real thing.

30 times is plenty. I've never in my life played a demo more than at least 5 times or so.

God dammit, I need at least 31 playthroughs of a demo before I can make a purchasing decision!!

I remember reading that the thought process at Nintendo is that if people can play a demo they won't buy the full game. Now, there may be young kids out there who will download demos and play them over and over and over again. I know people with kids who are 6-10 who don't mind watching the same movie 3x a week for two months. I don't think there's anyone out there who can afford to buy games for themselves that will do this. I can't imagine it leads to any lost sales at all from people who'd rather play the demo over and over. It's silly.

@Vexxan said:

If you like a demo enough to play it 30 times, you should probably go get the real thing.

Yes, but it should be the other way around, in that: if they're going to set the cap at 30, they might as well make it indefinite.

I guess that's at least high enough that no one in their right mind will hit the limit on any demo, but the thought process that must have led to this decision reeeeeaallly makes me wonder about the people in charge at Nintendo.

Then again, it's just as likely that pressure from third parties was the cause.

Still nice to have a demo, and I'd never play it 30 times. Not getting a 3DS though, so its moot anyway.

Going to check out Resident Evil right now!

Nothing wrong about the 30 time limit, I mostly play a demo twice max, but why 30? How did they get that number? Seems random.

I doubt very few if anyone is going to play a demo 30 times, also it only ticks down when you exit the application if you want to play it 5-6 times in a row it should still only go down one, but like many others are saying who cares.

edit: This seems like one of those things that in theory is a pretty bad idea and could get worse but in practice doesn't make a difference one way or another.

@SaturdayNightSpecials said:

I guess that's at least high enough that no one in their right mind will hit the limit on any demo, but the thought process that must have led to this decision reeeeeaallly makes me wonder about the people in charge at Nintendo.

Then again, it's just as likely that pressure from third parties was the cause.

You think it's external pressure? I highly doubt it because I don't know any other platform that has a restriction like this. It really sounds like a decision made by nintendo, to protect their first party titles. Little kids like repetition, similar to them watching the same movie a 100 times they are probably pretty satisfied for a long time with only a demo. Nintendo is the only one that cares about this though.

I barely even play demos anymore. I mostly judge off my own experience with the franchise, rent it, or buy it from a quick look. But even when I do play demos I sure as shit don't play it twice, let alone 30 times.

@Mattyboysmith said:

Also, regarding the image caption. If the cruise ship captain is Italian, I would be pretty f**king scared.

Touche.

Why does it seem like Nintendo begrudgingly hates modern game features? "Oh, you can have demos, but on really limited terms. Of course, you'll have to download it through our online system, which isn't very quick or convenient."

@louiedog: I fondly recall the days of demo disc. Back in the day my sister used to play the crap out of all of them. We sure as hell played some of those more than 30 times.

what

"Demos suddenly appeared on WiiWare again without explanation,"

They should put out the Wii U like that... The console just appears on store shelves one day, no explanation or announcement...

This has got to be the dumbest idea in forever.

Thought they weren't into demos because they like running Nintendo Wi-Fi on the cheap. This makes no sense - demos are not competition for full games.

I dont think I would ever play a demo more than 30 times let alone hit 30 times played. interesting idea. But i dont see it doing much for them one way or another.

The point isn't that anybody cares about the 30 plays limit. The point is that it's hilarious that Nintendo decided to do that. Nobody who can buy their own games is going to play a demo 30 times. Nobody. On the other hand, someone who only plays demos is NEVER going to buy the game. They played a demo 30 god damn times, they obviously don't want to spend the money, they'll just find another demo.

I don't start most of my retail games more than 30 times!

Just.. why? It doesn't matter in the least but.. I have to wonder the logistics behind this. Are they afraid that people will play the demo so often that they won't need to buy the actual game?

Nintendo's stances on so many things would be adorable if they weren't so weird.

"Demos suddenly appeared on WiiWare again without explanation,"

They should put out the Wii U like that... The console just appears on store shelves one day, no explanation or announcement...

Impressive graphics on Revelations.

"Resident Evil is going to the scariest setting imaginable: a cruise ship. Shudder at the though[t]" Actually, RE has gone to cruise ships twice already.. Gaiden on Game Boy Color and Dead Aim for PS2..

Oh Ninty ... your thought processes baffle me

Yeah, I'm just going to echo the notion that I never play a demo version of a game more than once or twice anyway, so while a limit is kind of paranoid weird, it doesn't really matter one way or the other.

...and I was going to purchase it after my 31st play. Oh well.

This wackiness stinks of Capcom. Is it going to be standard for all 3DS demos or just their products I wonder.

That's stupid.

@enpopica said:

"Demos suddenly appeared on WiiWare again without explanation,"

They should put out the Wii U like that... The console just appears on store shelves one day, no explanation or announcement...

That went real well for Sega with the saturn... Oh wait

Consider their main demographic and this actually makes some sense. I have kids and they're more than willing to play a hand full of demos over and over. Sometimes its for a game I really have no interest in buying and they're satisfied just with the demo. By having unlimited access to the demos it would make a small portion of the market more inclined to buy games because their kids cant cycle through 20 demos over and over.

@Jensonb: It's called sarcasm.

I don't think I've ever played a demo more than twice so this is a stupid idea.

Another one of those ideas where they're in "Nintendo world" and not "real world"

@Video_Game_King: I think it's probably because Nintendo has this deep seated desire to keep living in 1995, I can basically envision them having meetings filled with Japanese executives throwing around papers and screaming "what the hell is the internet?! why hasn't the world gotten rid of this fad already?"

SPELL CHECK: The caption for the picture in the article should read "Shudder at the thought."

Did they release any demos worth getting besides RE: Revelations?

I doubt the restriction will affect anyone at all, it just shows that Nintendo has some sort of problem with excepting change.

I bet the reason why we haven't had demos all this time was because Nintendo was trying to "solve" this "problem."

if you play a demo more than 30 times i think this is Nintendo's way to tell you "you are a crazy person"

'Resident Evil is going to the scariest setting imaginable: a cruise ship. Shudder at the though.'

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-16558910

too soon Patrick.

Like anyone plays a demo 30 times. Every demo ever downloaded I never played more than 5 times.

@Video_Game_King said:

Why does it seem like Nintendo begrudgingly hates modern game features? "Oh, you can have demos, but on really limited terms. Of course, you'll have to download it through our online system, which isn't very quick or convenient."

Nintendo is pretty terrible with online stuff, but really, downloading and playing this demo worked as well as on the 360. Only took about 5 min to download, was of decent size, easy to find, etc.

Yeah, I don't think I play a demo more than 30 times but it's still odd that the restriction is even there.

@Harkat:

I was referring more to the play limits and Wii demos being temporary, but OK.