Speaking at DICE 2013, Schell Games CEO and Puzzle Clubhouse creator Jesse Schell hit the games industry with a bit of a whopper.

Apparently, if you're looking to promote sales for a game, releasing a demo isn't a wise choice. As a matter of fact, a demo will have the opposite effect, as less people will end up buying a title if they get the chance to play a demo first.

According to Schell, and the figures he presented, the best way to generate sales was through a teaser trailer; something that makes people want to try a game, but doesn't give them any opportunity to actually do so without purchasing it. "The thing with no demo," said Schell; "you've gotta buy it if you want to try it."  

Do you think this presentation could impact the delivery of demos to gamers? Do you play demos? Are they enough of a taste to deter you from purchasing interesting games? The full presentation can be viewed below. 

Link

Start the video at 10:23. It's when he starts talking about how demo's hurt video game sales.

If things keep going in the direction they are in this industry, next thing they will blame for harming game sales will be people who buy games pre-ordered.

While I disagree with him on the demo hurting game sales thing, he has a lot of good points on how F2P is not the future. He talks about it a couple of minutes after his "demo's hurt game sales" rant.

Uhh....no good demos benefit game sales. I decided to get Rayman Legends based on the demos. (Well now i might be debatable)

I actually agree with this. Examples:
- I was 2000% hyped for Ni No Kuni and the demo lowered it to only 100% hyped
- Epic Mickey 2 stopped me from buying the game Day 1 (until yesterday at $39.99)
- God of War 3 demo had DOWNSCALED graphics and a lot of fanboys assumed the game would look like that
- Countless other demo's where 10 minutes makes you say 'meh' and defer sales.

I'd like to dig deeper into the data to see what's really going on. It could just be that the best-selling titles don't have demos, hence the sales skew. Interesting info nonetheless.

I'll give it a bite and go with it with this thought: Have you ever tried a demo for a game you didn't want to probably buy? Most gamers who download a demo are those who probably had plans to buy the game. If the demo is good, then their opinion is unchanged. If the demo is bad, however, then they won't want to buy the game anymore. People who are unlikely to buy your game probably won't try the demo, so a good demo won't influence them.

It's an interesting thought.

that's actaually a pretty reasonable explination.

..but at least in my own experience the couple of demo i have played were more for games i was 50/50 to begin with.  without a demo i'd probably just look to review scores but demo can be handy.  i was so/so on ni no kuni (i'm not the biggest rpg fan) but the demo sold me on it.  more often than not the demo un-sells me though.

Why does anybody give this guy a stage? Puzzles me...

PATV (formerly Escapist)'s Extra Credits goes through why demos aren't a good idea. Definitely worth watching.