3DS Demos Are Now Live, But...

No sane person would use all 30 uses (atleast for the RE:RE demo) but that raises the question of "then why limit it in the first place?"

@kurtbro900 said:

Damn you Nintendo for not making this decision. Now I can't talk about how behind you are.

They put the option in there, no other console maker has done such a thing so far...

I hardly doubt that anybody will play a demo more than 30 times, but still, the concept is pretty ridiculous.

I might have played the JC2 demo like 10 times.

Damn you Nintendo for not making this decision. Now I can't talk about how behind you are.

But I play all game demos exactly 31 times before I make a purchasing decision!

@D5tryr said:

By introducing an expiration mechanic Nintendo are removing the need for developers to make some of these decisions so perhaps this will lead to different types of demos, and that this will in turn trickle up to the design of the complete games also.

Your argument would make a lot more sense if the demo expired after 10 play sessions or another smaller than 30 number. As it stands, developers still need to make those decisions because the re-play count doesn't limit how far into the game a player can go. Those barriers need to be built in either way.

I suspect the reasoning has a lot more to do with nintendo than any developers or publishers.

Historically game demos have been developed with their replay-ability in mind. A developer had to make balanced decisions about what to include in a demo. They must ensure that it is thrilling enough to lure players in to making a purchase, but doesn't provide so much fun for the player that they are content to stick with the demo and not purchase anything at all.

Perhaps these factors influence up to the design of a complete game too.

By introducing an expiration mechanic Nintendo are removing the need for developers to make some of these decisions so perhaps this will lead to different types of demos, and that this will in turn trickle up to the design of the complete games also.

Wow! That's about 29 times more than I'll ever play a demo! What a total non-issue!

@Brendan said:

@Large_Soda said:

@Brendan said:

@Detway81 said:

30 is plenty, but why have a restriction in the first place.

Yeah, I'm not mad at this news or anything, but pretty curious.

Sounds like they're starting it at 30 to test the waters........could get worse.

That's cynical.

I don't think so at all.

Well, since most of you probably ain't gonna play a demo even close to 30 times, why even bother complaining?

Now that's dumb. =D

I not sure whether to laugh or just stare in disbelief.

Demos are basically advertisements. You should be glad that people even bother to watch your ad / play your demo ...

Next they will be limiting the number of times you can watch the video trailers you download from them.

Awkward game that really needs the Circle Pad Pro to play.  I died in the middle of the demo and it sent me back to the main menu.  I deleted it after that.
 
Nice graphics, good looking 3D, but I'm going to pass.

@MattSchwabby said:

Is this the same demo that came with Resident Evil Mercenaries 3D? Curious, because I really enjoyed this demo and want to play more of this game. Thinking of picking up a cheap copy of Mercenaries if the demo is different.

It is not.

Nintendo are giving publishers the option to set play restrictions. So, it was on Capcom wether to set a limit or not.

This 30 usage thing is so dumb.

The tech is in place. Once they can get away with it, they'll be selling us bundles of plays for software we own too.

30 times! You can only play thirty times! That's as many as three tens! And that's terrible... ~ long live the superdictionary

@Mattyboysmith said:

Well that is totally rediculous being moderated about doing an accent, since when is that racist?. If someone does a posh English voice for a British person is that racist? Not impressed by this at all.

"British" is a nationality. They're white dudes, bro.

I wanted to play Cooking Mama 4 way more than 30 times, now I have to buy it.
 
fuck
 
I know sometimes people attribute bizarre business decisions to 'Japan' but this is just a case of Nintendo being Nintendo. Sony have never taken this stance with demos.

@Large_Soda said:

@Brendan said:

@Detway81 said:

30 is plenty, but why have a restriction in the first place.

Yeah, I'm not mad at this news or anything, but pretty curious.

Sounds like they're starting it at 30 to test the waters........could get worse.

That's cynical.

Nintendo are excessively weird.

@Brendan said:

@Detway81 said:

30 is plenty, but why have a restriction in the first place.

Yeah, I'm not mad at this news or anything, but pretty curious.

Sounds like they're starting it at 30 to test the waters........could get worse.

Is this the same demo that came with Resident Evil Mercenaries 3D? Curious, because I really enjoyed this demo and want to play more of this game. Thinking of picking up a cheap copy of Mercenaries if the demo is different.

Well that is totally rediculous being moderated about doing an accent, since when is that racist?. If someone does a posh English voice for a British person is that racist? Not impressed by this at all.

The 30 times thing seems like a zero issue to me.

That is pretty asinine restriction. Not that many people will play a demo that many times, but to make a policy (and deliberately develop the platform to work that way) about limiting access to promotional material is rather stupid.

Its like Nintendo doesn't get modern features. It took them 6 years to get rid of online friend codes... maybe we will see achievements in the Wii U-2.

Nintendo literally cannot do anything right when it comes to online :/ disappointing.

Hard limiting the number of times you can play a demo doesn't solve any sort of problem that demos suffered from. Get the fuck out, Nintendo.

I tried out the Resident Evil demo after reading this.

Fuck. This may be the best Resi game yet. I am so sold on it. It looks better than I thought 3DS games could look, it plays well and it can actually scare.

I'm glad I bought a 3DS for pretty bullshit reasons now. I could take or leave 3D, but there are some solid games on it.

I imagine that's reason enough for companies to release demos. I didn't really have any expectations until playing it for myself.

The uses stuff is crazy though. So is taking down demos. The XBLA system is great; you're guaranteed to be able to try a game before you buy it. I've never played a demo over 30 times to my knowledge, but the limitation annoys me, especially pre-release; before you can even give them your money they'll take away the demo.

The demo limit is really odd. It also doesn't tick down unless your close the game and restart it. I played through it twice and it stayed at 29 remaining.

The game itself looks interesting. Normal difficulty wasn't a pushover and I felt tense and nervous even though its a handheld. The graphics are also really good.

It has an option to use the circle pad pro as well, which I thought was funny, but cool.

Love a good arbitrary limit. Nintendo don't half act oddly every now and then. They do something that everyone else does but... a bit weirder.

It's weird just having this limitation... I launched the demo to see what the graphics would look like while at work, quit after about 30 seconds so my boss wouldn't see (he HATES Capcom) and noticed I had 29 uses left.

30 individual sessions (assuming there's no other limit beyond the length of the demo) seems pretty fair to me. Let's not forget that XBL has had several games that offer only a 30 minute demo (Battlefield 1943 being one of them).

I would prefer the limit not be there at all, but it's not totally unreasonable.

What? Is Nintendo a huge fan of restricting demos or something? And arbitrary numbering restrictions as well? This is so strange...

Cruise ship!? Topical.

@Hailinel said:

If you can't make up your mind about a game after playing the demo thirty times, I don't think that's the fault of the play limit.

This.

I looked in my log for all my games and I haven't even played Mario 30 times and that's a game I own and have played for over 20 hours. most people will play demos once or twice and be done with them. I didn't even play the Cooking Mama demo for a full playthrough let alone 30.

Lol. Even if they made it 5, I still wouldn't care.

Maybe something cool and totally awesome will happen when we played the demo 30 times :D

Very nice demo, looking forward to playing the final product. Even though I think they should have put 2 analog sticks from the start, hell even the first PSP should have had dual analog sticks! I'm happy that RE: Revelations supports the circle pad and that there is a RE: Revelation + Circle Pad bundle.

That's a weird restriction. The demo should just be unrestricted, but should only take 10 minutes or so to beat. I remember Half Life 2's Ravenholme demo was one of the more convincing demos I've ever played. Also, the Battlefield 1942 demo, back when demos weren't called open betas, which contained one multiplayer map (Wake Island).

@Detway81 said:

30 is plenty, but why have a restriction in the first place.

Yeah, I'm not mad at this news or anything, but pretty curious.

I just finished the Revelations Demo (looks good btw), but I couldn't help but ask that same question. What's the point of the thirty use limit other than to be needlessly restrictive about the process? Nobody would ever really use up that many tries on a demo, and if they did, why would you even care?

I can't even think of a single full game I've fired up more than 30 times, except for maybe World of Warcraft.

On the complete flip-side of this is Sony with their 60 minute game demos for Plus members only. Yikes, how's that for restrictive?

Making the demos limited and more importantly making that number visible at a glance is actively user hostile. It says the higher-ups at Nintendo think you're showing up for a gaming handout.

The real irony here is it'll be moot sooner or later once Chinese hackers figure out how to make a next-gen R4 card and people get to give themselves unlimited "demos" of full games instead.

If you can't make up your mind about a game after playing the demo thirty times, I don't think that's the fault of the play limit.

I know it's a number I would never hit (most demos you can complete in one sitting, and if you play it 30 times you might as well buy it) but it's still a really weird limit to have. Does Nintendo have some problem with demos that Sony and Microsoft just don't?

Edit: Just read in the comments that this isn't a Nintendo thing. Still a really weird restriction to have,

30 is plenty, but why have a restriction in the first place.

I just played the demo and barely had the will to finish it once, so the 30 times seems more than fair. It gave me the chance to decide in a hands on way whether the game was for me or not, so the limit hardly seems to conflict with what a demo is meant to do.

But I want all of the plays!

First of all, this is pretty old news. Like almost 6 months or more old.

Secondly, this is not Nintendo's restriction. It's Capcom's descision to put the 30-play limit there. There's going to be another demo from another developer in the future which will have a 3-play limit! Yes, three plays. I don't remember which game it was now though, but I think it was from Ubisoft.

So really, 30 plays is more than plenty. I don't think I've ever played a demo more than that.

maybe the 30 has something to do with the release date. i think there is about 20 days until release...u might play the game more than a couple times a day and be like damn, i want to play more of that game ill just buy it.

Maybe Nintendo/Capcom are just trying to test to see if it makes an impact on sales. ever thought of that people? companies are always trying to get more more and data on how consumers react.