Why is Nintendo so pinchy with demo disks?

crankypants said:
Quantity: Minimum order quantity is 1200 discs maximum order quantity is 3600 discs.

Cost of Goods: There is $450.00 initial stamper fee, plus $2.50 per disc. Cost of goods include disc and a black and white "generic" label.

http://www.warioworld.com/licensing/demodiscs/

Good god, that's outrageous! Think about a magazine that would need 1 million. 1,000,000/3600 x $450 + (1,000,000 x $2.50) = $2,625,000.000

Although I have no proof, I'm guessing that it costs Ziff Davis about a $1.25 per demo disc (.75-.80 to press and another .50 for the insert printing costs).
 
The last time I talked to someone from Nintendo Power, a writer who was attending a press junket along with us unofficial media, he said everyone at the magazine would LOVE to do demo discs...but NCL thinks it would hurt game sales.
 
Jonnyboy117 said:
The last time I talked to someone from Nintendo Power, a writer who was attending a press junket along with us unofficial media, he said everyone at the magazine would LOVE to do demo discs...but NCL thinks it would hurt game sales.

What a shame if that's their logic. Someone needs to slap some sense into them and tell them to get over it. It's not like they are the only ones affected by demo discs--demos are a key place for 3rd party promotion.
 
Jonnyboy117 said:
The last time I talked to someone from Nintendo Power, a writer who was attending a press junket along with us unofficial media, he said everyone at the magazine would LOVE to do demo discs...but NCL thinks it would hurt game sales.
See, I'd believe this. It seems counterintuitive, but they might be right.

Interestingly enough, this is coming from NCL in Japan, where there are actually more demo discs released. I got Biohazard Zero and Lost Kingdoms II demos in magazines, and there's a Resident Evil 4 one coming out soon.
 
The demo disc last year with VJ et al had "NOT FOR RESALE" printed on it. To say Nintendo were trying to make money from it is laughable. Yet another N-hater myth. If you want to blame anyone for not seeing any more demo discs blame the likes of Best Buy who went and made a lot of money by selling the thing against Nintendo's wishes.

jedimike said:
Good god, that's outrageous! Think about a magazine that would need 1 million. 1,000,000/3600 x $450 + (1,000,000 x $2.50) = $2,625,000.000

Although I have no proof, I'm guessing that it costs Ziff Davis about a $1.25 per demo disc (.75-.80 to press and another .50 for the insert printing costs).
Maximum of 3600 discs? Seems to rule out inclusion on magazine covers, general sale/giveaways at retail or inclusion with a full game to demo a publisher other. It isn't a massmarket price because the deal isn't meant to be marketed at the masses but used for limited media handouts, demo pods etc.
 
cja said:
The demo disc last year with VJ et al had "NOT FOR RESALE" printed on it. To say Nintendo were trying to make money from it is laughable. Yet another N-hater myth. If you want to blame anyone for not seeing any more demo discs blame the likes of Best Buy who went and made a lot of money by selling the thing against Nintendo's wishes.

You know, I totally forgot about that. I still see copies of that demo going for 40 bucks and Best Buy. I don't know what the hell happened with that whole incident, but it looks like it was monumental mess. I guess I can't blame for being less than enthusiatic about demos at this point.
 
Kobun Heat said:
See, I'd believe this. It seems counterintuitive, but they might be right.

Interestingly enough, this is coming from NCL in Japan, where there are actually more demo discs released. I got Biohazard Zero and Lost Kingdoms II demos in magazines, and there's a Resident Evil 4 one coming out soon.

Yup, and those reasons I gave in my post up above there are probably part of it. I think they
are right. In fact, some PC developers have stopped with demos recently because the time and money to produce them became prohibitive and the returns weren't there to justify it. Now they save the demo for after the game is released or never release one at all.

It's just another one of those "give it away free and people won't buy" things that happens when you provide free stuff. They get enough enjoyment from the demo to say they don't need the full game. On the other hand, maybe they try it and hate the game outright but if they hadn't had the demo, would have bought the game anyway. It's a cynical way of looking at it I guess, but business is what it is.

I also think demos are part of what stifles creative games. That may seem counter-intuitive, but when people don't get a chance to play something ahead of time, they're more inclined to enjoy it, especially if they didn't know what to expect at all. Katamari Damacy is probably a great example of that. If some played a demo of that, they'd probably say "THIS IS A GIMMICK!" but instead folks fell in love with the game because part of its appeal is how it builds up to the final level!
 
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