this

People feel entitled to demos but I wouldnt mind paying a few bucks for a few hours to try a game. Also, demos are kinda rare these days.

I have EA Access and the amount of time I get with Star Wars BF is worth money.

Sounds like a paid demo to me ; )

Paying to try it out sounds like a terrible idea. They should remain as demos that you try out, and you buy it if you like what you played, or don't and just move on to something else.

I see this a lot.  But, with a game like The Evil Within (a game I bought last year digitally because it was on sale) there isn't a demo at all.  Lots of, if not most, games offer no demo whatsoever.  If they gave the free trial like a lot of PS3 games used to or, as somebody else mentioned, EA Access, people might realize they like the game and buy it.....or people might realize that they don't like the game and not buy it.

The thing is, a demo as it existed in the PS1/PS2 days, costs money to make.  What did a company have to gain by releasing one?  Exposure?  So, with the method menitoned in the OP, at least they stand to gain money from people interested in the demo.

It might need some tweeks.  Any suggestions?

Well, I recall there used to be more demos back then, but they are done a lot less, for reasons you stated. It takes extra time and resource to make, and it may have the opposite effect of turning people away, which is likely why they stopped making demos.

I dunno what they could do. It could be that the demo wasn't made very well or it could be that their game isn't all that interesting to start with. Or people aren't into that kind of game.

I think a demo is just as important as the game. It has to grab the player's interest right away, or else it'll just fail and turn them away from the game. Extra Credits talked about this way better than I could.... : X

Ehh I dunno, this just doesn't sound right.

What if companies try to do something, like make the demo section of the game not properly reflect and represent the final product at all?

In fact, going by d21lewis example, the first chapter in The Evil Within has almost zero resemblance to the mood established in chapter 2 and onwards - aside from a few moments in chapter 5 and 10 -. Anyone who plays the first chapter in The Evil Within and afterwards purchases the whole game in the hope of having more of the same can come up disappointed, but that isn't the game's fault.

Yeah, that might be a problem.  I played Ground Zeroes and thought it was short but great.  Then, I played the first part of MGSV and thought it was spectacular.  Then, I played the meat of MGSV and I was highly disappointed.  This game would be one of those that falls through the cracks.  But a game like Rise of the Tomb Raider, I feel, would hook a lot of people that just weren't excited to play it and they wouldn't be disappointed.  The main thing is giving people who are on the fence an option to try the game out without breaking the developer's budget.  It would have saved me money on a lot of games, too.  I usually know what I want but sometimes I buy a game and realize that it just isn't doing it for me.

You're definitely drunk

When I was young, demos didn't exist and the only way to get them was to walk 20 miles in the snow without shoes to a video store to rent a game in order to see if you liked it or not.