Why Is There no Free Trial?

[KBWarriors]

I want to try the game out but I don't want to spend $40-60 on something just to find out that I don't like it.

I haven't heard much about the game or many people talking about it but I'd still like to try it out. A Free Trial is a great marketing strategy that draws people in, so I'm wondering why they simply just don't include one?

[ukrainium]

Because it's still a relatively new game?

Retailers in my area have only just started getting boxed copies back in stock this week. They've been sold out since the week of release.

[barackopala]

I wanted to try WoW for a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG time when it came out... guess what? had to wait more than just one month

[Valeron]

You usually have to wait at least 6 months after the release for free trials to happen. You'll just have to wait a bit OP.

[Edge-]

The majority of sales happen in the first two months or so of the games release, and the holidays are coming up very quickly (another big boom in sales). I wouldn't expect one until next year at this point. Kinda sucks, but it is pretty common for recently released games to hold off on implementing free trial programs for a while after launch.

[Zeek Daniels]

I want to try the game out but I don't want to spend $40-60 on something just to find out that I don't like it.

I haven't heard much about the game or many people talking about it but I'd still like to try it out. A Free Trial is a great marketing strategy that draws people in, so I'm wondering why they simply just don't include one?

How come theirs no free trial for Mass effect 1, 2 or 3? How come theres no free trial for all the Halo games? There is no subs for GW2. There is no need for a trial. If you dont like the game then o well you lost 40-60 bucks tough luck. If you buy a game and dont like it ask for a refund.

[Valeron]

The lack of any kinds of demos in the gaming industry right now is a bad thing, not something to hold up and say, "See, these guys don't do it!"

Well quite a few games have demos. ME3 had one if I recall, not sure if that was a time restricted one (available only for a certain date) or available always.

But again, mmos almost never have a free trial on their release (I can't think of any). GW1 has one but that trial came out way after release. Expect the same with GW2. So people wanting a free trial first will just have to wait a bit.

[Deleted]

GW2 has full or high servers all across the board. Giving free trials now wouldn't be a good idea. I bet they'll wait until more people take breaks (want it or not, no matter how good a game is, some people always take breaks or leave it) and then give free trials most likely. Probably after 6 months from launch or something. But right now it's not in their interest as the trials would clog the servers which are already high and full except for a few lost servers on EU side which are medium.

[Razeo]

The lack of any kinds of demos in the gaming industry right now is a bad thing, not something to hold up and say, "See, these guys don't do it!"

I have yet to recall a console game that has had free trials over the years since the original NES days. Same goes for MMOs with free trials within the first 2 months.

[ScottsdaleHokie]

They don't need one. All of the servers are either Full or at High population every single night.

[Razeo]

Are you going to make me explain this one?

Please do..... seriously.

[IRunSoFarAway]

As soon as box sales slow down, there typically will be a free trial, couple more months probably. I would've bought it as well, but I never got into the beta to play it for myself.

[Butler to Baby Sloths]

I have yet to recall a console game that has had free trials over the years since the original NES days. Same goes for MMOs with free trials within the first 2 months.

I'm sure I have some PS1 demo discs lying around here somewhere...

[SteakAndAlePie]

I wanted to try WoW for a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG time when it came out... guess what? had to wait more than just one month

WoW had a free trial from day 1. It was a guest key given to everyone who ordered a collectors edition back than. It lasted for only 10 days though.

[Fencers]

I have yet to recall a console game that has had free trials over the years since the original NES days. Same goes for MMOs with free trials within the first 2 months.

Many consoles sent out free promo discs with many games on them up to the original Xbox era. I still have them. Also the console networks currently allow free trials and demos.

Steam as well. Steam even has weekend passes for a variety of games.

Also Secret World, Tera, Rift, The Old Republic and Diablo 3 all had trial or limited access options fairly early after launch.

Not that Anet need to oblige, per se. Though demos/trials and open extensive betas are not some kind of rarity.

[barackopala]

People will feel entitled to have demos just because other games have them.

WoW had a free trial from day 1. It was a guest key given to everyone who ordered a collectors edition back than. It lasted for only 10 days though.

Yeah, I forgot that not everyone bought the collectors one, hell even my SC2 game has got those guest keys, never used them.

[jason1975]

I'm pretty sure they've been overwhelmed by the demand. I'd be shocked if they didn't have a free trial plan ready to go. It's probably just the fact that right now they aren't sure if their server infrastructure could handle it.

I wouldn't be surprised to see it in about 6 months.

But really, it's only $60 for a game with a ton of very positive reviews. My wife and I bought it and had a great time. We've gone back to WoW, but it was worth the $60 and we'll likely revisit it at some point in the future.

[Recondition]

How come theirs no free trial for Mass effect 1, 2 or 3? How come theres no free trial for all the Halo games? There is no subs for GW2. There is no need for a trial. If you dont like the game then o well you lost 40-60 bucks tough luck. If you buy a game and dont like it ask for a refund.

But every game has a demo of some form does it not?

[Fencers]

People will feel entitled to have demos just because other games have them.

A more appropriate term is expectation. Not entitlement, necessarily. Although that might be true on person-by-person basis here and there.

However. As consumers, an expectation of comparable services & goods is both commonly acceptable and healthy for both parties; buyers & sellers.

It's how standards are established.

[Hockeyhacker]

Should game demos/trials become a standard in the (video)gaming market? Yes, of course being able to know what your buying before you buy it is a good thing, though demos can be just as misleading as say having an expert chief cook up some mediocre quality food in a way you have no chance at making the same and ending up buying it only to find out that when you cook it yourself its not as good as what you normally buy.

Are game demos/trails starting to become a standard? Yes, but the key word there is starting, not that long ago the only "game demos" you could try is whatever the heck Blockbuster had in their console for three months before changing games. It is becoming more and more common with the ever growing competition in the market but its not an industry standard by any stretch of the imagination yet.

Remember back in the late 80s and early 90s when games use to cost $50 which if you account for inflation was about $80-90 in todays money, had no demos, and for all you knew it could be something well worth the money but had just as good of a chance as being a game that was either no fun or beatable in but a few hours with little to no replay value?

And final point due to the nature of a demo/trail it takes extra money and more importantly time out of the development process because they want their demos to be like movie trailers where it may show something great yet the remaining 99.95% of the game/movie is complete junk so they have to pick and choose what they want to show (sometimes from stuff that got cut out of the game/movie prior to release) and put it together.

Point is, that no there is no demo for GW2 yet, but that though it should become an industry standard from a consumers standpoint it is still not there yet though is moving that way as gaming increases in competition and developers need to try to win consumers over more so then they use to have to. The game is still fairly new, its during holiday sales season and creating a MMO demo is a lot more work then creating a single player game demo though both are a lot of work, on top of that they develop content for holidays and so don't really have the time to work on a demo right now since there are 3 major holidays as far as what MMOs "celebrate" back to back to back so I wouldn't expect a demo before February at the earliest but probably not that soon either.... if I where to take a guess they will probably release a demo for its 1 year anniversary but no sooner than then.