Category > General
Since this is important Steam-related information and not Giveaways to this community, it may be easier to share information by switching here.π§
Thanks info(δΊΊΞ'o)βͺ
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Feels like there is a sale or event every single week these days π Soon we'll be celebrating normal release prices.
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Here are mine , but for the second one I've found too late and I couldn't get the full level -
https://steamcommunity.com/id/npocmaka/badges/62
https://steamcommunity.com/id/npocmaka/badges/60
For each played demo of a game included in the fest there were 10p badge , and the max level was 100p.
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I like Nextfests a lot, but it would be nice to progress with my games too.
It's a such a pity that many devs upload a demo only for the duration of the fest... I don't know why it's good for them to remove it afterwards.
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Some research claiming demos can hurt sales from ~2013. If a demo is or will become significantly out of date and won't be updated, then it is no longer representative of the final product either and should probably be removed.
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10-year old research in the gaming world surely can't be relevant anymore. if the demo is good, it will make people buy the game, if it's not, or they remove it with some bullshit excuse, let's blame anything and everything but lazy or incompetent developers.
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I agree that demos should be available for games, but when platforms like Steam offer 2-hour refund windows, is that not enough? I've seen some cases where a bug occurs after the 2-hour mark making the game unplayable, but other than extreme cases where progress becomes impossible, a refund window is pretty good. Again, they could be more generous like GOG's policy, but most platforms are just concerned with the bottom line. Another potential case is Xbox Gamepass (PC games also included optionally), which supposedly causes games to sell more due to word of mouth like you say a good demo would, but to the friends of the person playing their indefinite copy - https://www.gamesindustry.biz/phil-spencer-game-pass-leads-to-more-game-sales
I'm not sure that conclusion is 100% true, rather the audience that would be interested in the game not being subscribed to Gamepass, so they just buy the game outright rather than tack on another monthly service. So as long as the Gamepass audience and the non-Gamepass market exist in decent amounts, then there will continue to be a cascading trickle of sales from one to the other if a game is available both ways. However, I think we may start seeing access to some games exclusively locked to Gamepass, PlayStation Plus, etc. like Nintendo is doing with requiring you to subscribe for their small catalog of the odd, old Genesis or N64 game.
TL;DR - yes, demos are good for gamers, but I think we will see fewer and fewer of them for various reasons. Maybe we will see a subset of games in a particular niche continue to offer demos on different platforms, but the primary one PC gamers are concerned with is a likely no, except for the occasional events like Next fest that will draw in new demo offerings in hopes of being featured on the main store pages. Like I said initially if that demo is of an in-progress build and won't be representative of the final product like many smaller games that participated in Next fest, then I don't blame them for removing the demo rather than putting another updated demo out when the game is near completion.
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but when platforms like Steam offer 2-hour refund windows, is that not enough?
it's not, even if a lazy dev says so. refunds are not supposed to be (ab)used for demo purposes anyway, but nobody gives a fuck about that.
yes, demos are good for gamers, but I think we will see fewer and fewer of them for various reasons.
we see hundreds and hundreds of them, more than for a long time before. the problem is that valve is half-assing everything, so they fuck up the 'make devs make more demos for these events' thing with a suggested/mandatory time limit.
I don't blame them for removing the demo rather than putting another updated demo out when the game is near completion.
don't put out a demo for your proof of contept then, wait until the next fest and publish something more fleshed out. the demo doesn't have to represent the full game in every way, as long as it covers important things. adding a disclaimer on startup sholdn't be too taxing either (the full game also has this or that, x bug is fixed there, etc.).
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You do know Valve doesn't suggest or mandate to remove a demo after Next fest, right? Devs choose to because they aren't releasing their demo for the benefit of players. They just wanted some exposure and the opportunity for exposure has left when Steam stops featuring demos.
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I was told by some devs that valve does that, but not everybody removes them after the event is over.
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Have these always been 3+ times a year?
I first gave NextFest attention in the absence of a proper E3 last summer, thinking it was an annual event. But then there was another NextFest in the fall, and now there's another one this week. Was it like this the year before as well?
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they made it more frequent after seeing how successful it was. successful in spreading the idiotic notion of limited-time demos.
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And no badge again. 2023 has been a little lackluster with events, Steam.
Don't get me wrong, I still like a Lunar Year Sale and NextFest but would it kill them to make them feel like proper events and not just ways to make money?
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On the contrary, I'd think if they'd invest a few man hours of an intern to make a badge for the event interest of the plebs players would be considerably higher and might even result in a future sale or two.
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I think so too. At this point, all those events are starting to feel lifeless and that's not very attractive, not to mention it doesn't make anyone run to the site to check the usual discounts.
But then again, maybe they took a look at the pitiful collection they were presenting this time around and figured it wasn't worth the time to make it look special.
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https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2206380/view/3647388158764513676?
https://steamcommunity.com/broadcast/watch/76561198875101627
Next Fest Broadcast
It seems that the developers in the chat room give out beta? keys from time to time.π
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Thanks for the tip, I was able to get one a couple of minutes ago.
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Probably there will be a badge. Yesterday I've received 100xp from nowhere - I've played 10 demos form the games included in the fest. But there's no badge in my list yet.
The 2022 june edition of nextFest I've received my badge on 19jun and the fest was from 06th till 20th of june - i.e. the badge appeared almost at the end of the fest
For the october edition I've received my badge on 9th of october and the fest was held from 03 till 10th of october.
In both cases the badge appeared on the penultimate day.
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https://store.steampowered.com/sale/nextfest - I couldn't find a thread about this. Tomorrow starts the next fest. I don't know if there will be a badge this time.
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