[mstade]

    You can go on YouTube and have multi hour long recordings
    of single player games that turn the game into a movie for 
    story focused games I can definitely understand why some 
    publishers would like to put an end to this as I have 
    watched a few of those instead of buying the game and I 
    know quite a few other people that would.

I've done this, both for games I own and don't. Last I did it was for the new Wolfenstein game. I thought it looked cool, so when the demo came around I downloaded and tried it. At that point though, the suspense of what was going to come next was gone, and instead I just focused on controls and other things that bothered me. I didn't buy the game in the end.

Streaming has increasingly informed my purchasing decisions over the past year or so. Sometimes it's made my buy things I never thought I'd look twice at (e.g. Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice) and other times as mentioned it's dissuaded me entirely. It's a double edged sword, for sure.

EDIT: To add to this, I feel that demos filled this niche for me before, but these days you rarely get anything but a super polished ad video that barely has any relation with the game. Back in the shareware days, demos were common place, and they definitely made me buy games more than once. Sometimes the rest of the game were a dud, most of the time it wasn't. A current game that does this to great effect is Tomb Raider – it gets you in the game proper, teaches you the controls, and drops you off right as the story is about to begin for real. If you purchase the game, you can then pick up right where you left off (which you can't from watching a video, or playing in a store.) It's a great example of demo design.

[MattRix]

As much as consumers may like demos, all the data I've seen shows that having a demo actually decreases sales of games, which is why most games don't have demos anymore.

[edc117]

Unless your game is actually good, in which case I'd think it would drive sales. Anecdotally, I've bought several after trying the demos for them (and the opposite as well).

There's certainly precedent among some of the larger players. Look at Blizzard - just about everything has occasional free weekends or trials of some sort after the initial release.

[chii]

demos prevent buyers from making impulse purchases of games. I'd say on the whole, it decreases sales more than it increases

[mstade]

It also prevents buyers from feeling cheated. I'd rather play a demo and realize the game's just not very good, than shell out $50 for it and more or less instantly regret it, with very limited (if any) options to return it at that point.

[dogma1138]

Did you actually watch the entire story or just a lets play/review? Wolfenstein isn't that great of an example despite having a story it's not exactly a story rich game.

I'm not sure the same thing would hold for a game like the Witcher 3, HzD etc. A game that I've just watched the edited cutscene & cinematics movie for is Halo Wars 2 I'm somewhat of a fan of the Halo franchise primarily if I can get the story I don't really feel the need to play that game since to me for that specific game the story would be the main benefit rather than the actual game mechanics.

Another example would be Star Wars Battlefront 2, I've cancelled the pre-Order after the debacle with the loot boxes so I just watches the single player game, I have a few friends that watched the Mass Effect Andromeda main story made into a movie instead of buying it both because of the bad press and the time.

And it's funny that you've mentioned Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, I've bought the game (well preordered it because both of Ninja Theory and their GDC demos) my GF watched me play it, and 10+ friends I know just watched it on youtube rather than buy it mostly again because of the same excuse "I don't have time for that" despite I know exactly how much time they sit on their PS4/XboxOne/PC because I can see when they are online. But they much rather play CoD/BF/CS:GO/WoW etc. in the bulk of their time and consume games via effectively binge watching instead of playing, I don't know how much they enjoy it but at least they don't feel out of picture when people are discussing games heck I've seen entire "discussions" on discord about games like HB:SS or HzD where the vast majority of participants if not all of them didn't play the game or didn't even buy it.

So I'm happy that you've bought Wolfenstein but it looks like you've bought it for the mechanics, It's also nice that a demo convinced you to buy it but sadly demos have shown to reduce game purchases not increase them especially these days.

And given the purchasing behaviours of both myself, my friends, and my acquaintances I understand quite well why publishers want to effectively kill turning their games into a movie, and for anyone one that claims fair use it's not.

[mstade]

I watched almost the entire thing. You're right, it's not a particularly rich story, but it is a story driven single player game – which is the point. It seems we agree actually, I wasn't saying streaming full games should be ok, but what I was saying is it has most definitely informed my purchasing decisions in the past, in a way that demos used to do when they were common place. (Which they aren't today, at least not on console.)

I didn't buy Wolfenstein in the end – you must have misread that – and it was a combination of already knowing the story and the game play not being compelling enough for me to want to it "again" as it were, that made me back out of purchasing. Had I only played the demo however, there's a good chance I would've bought the game, because I did want to see the story and the gameplay although not incredibly exciting was still enjoyable. Instead, I watched it for free on YouTube, like a movie. I absolutely understand why publishers want to make this go away, and frankly I support that.

I still like to try before I buy though, and unfortunately since very few games have proper demos I can try I'm left with either reviews which give me next to no useful information or play throughs. Unfortunately the latter is just as likely to make me not buy the game because I might just not be compelled enough to play it "again" (even though I only watched it the first time) whereas a well made demo (e.g. the first 30 minutes of the game or so) is much more likely to get me to buy right then and there just to see what's next. Mileage varies of course, not everyone is like me. Just providing some anecdotes here.

[mstade]

By the way, the reason your friends might say they "don't have time" yet play repetitive shooters or other games for hours on end is perhaps that those kinds of game require much less emotional investment. I know I'm like that, some games I just can't play because I know it'll take me forever to finish them, but I've still probably plowed down a good couple of hundred hours into BF1. Why? Because I don't have to recall the story or characters from two weeks ago, when I last played the game. I love a good story based game, but if it takes more than a few hours to play through there's a good chance I'll never finish it, unless it's very compelling. Horizon Zero Dawn is an example of a story driven game that had my attention from start to finish, but the only game I recall having that kind of pull on me before that was probably Fallout 2.

[YeOakAye]

Years ago System Shock 2 had a demo which was basically just the introduction to the story, and the new Prey recently was similar. Both lead to me purchasing the full game almost instantly after completing the demo.

Also, in addition to streamers and youtube, I find the 2 hour playtime window for which Steam will refund unquestioningly, helps alleviate the stress of making a bad purchase. Provided the game is available on Steam, of course!

[mstade]

That's exactly how the Tomb Raider demo is, and just like you it led me to purchase the game afterwards – I wanted to see the rest! Almost certainly I wouldn't if I had watched the thing streamed though.

The two hour window is nice, but when does it start? I'll buy games sometimes because they are a good deal, during a sale or something, but not play them until long after. Regardless, I only ever play on my PS4, so I buy games through their store. Not sure what the return policy there is.

[YeOakAye]

Two hours of playtime, or two weeks since you bought the game.

[mstade]

That's remarkably fair, thanks for the insight!