*Ahem*
Absolutely not defending EA here, buuuuuut... consider.
A friend of mine has kids. They love sports games, hockey soccer etc.
The thing is, he just downloads the lates NHL demo for them and they're perfectly content with it.
They never ask him to buy the full game. Totally content just to play the demo over and over. Most are even multiplayer, so they can play with their friends.
I realize this isn't true with most gamers, and probably as kids get older they begin to understand what they're missing out on by only having a demo. But I am willing to bet EA has a paper pusher who will say something like "X360 NHL Demo was downloaded 40 million accounts; only sold 1 million retail copies. 35% of all people downloaded that demo continued to play for (x number of months) for dozens if not hundres of hours after retail release without ever upgrading.
In other words, a high(ish) percent of people were getting all the enjoyment they wanted out of a game, for free. Cause the demo offered a casual bit of hockey or (soccer or what have you).
Maybe a percentage of those people would have bought the full game, had their not been a demo. Maybe not. But EA clearly sees that people are downloading demos, playing them long past retal release, and not upgrading. And they feel they can wring extra dollars out.
I think it's a terrible idea, and will just serve to further isolate EA from the hearts of gamers.
Only way I could get behind it is this: Demo for NHL comes out, say end of July. It costs me $5. Buuuuuuuut if I buy the demo, I get the retail release for $5 cheaper in September off the online store.
Edit: It was allll a mistake, apparently.
