Out of all the situations(which were like nine or so), only three or so were positive outcomes. Even having a great demo for a great game is only a marginal increase(since people were already likely buying anyway.) Putting out a bad demo can absolutely cripple sales. A meh demo can end up losing you sales, too. Simply put, it just ends up as too much of a risk to developers now to do demos. So go watch this video here , courtesy of the Extra Credits guys, and then come back. (Or just like...keep going and you'll probably still get it. It's up to you.)
Now we'll see why a Tekken 7 demo likely wouldn't be great(and why a beta would likely be iffy as well.)
Say hypothetically they released a T7 demo next month. They'd first have to limit characters. Let's face it; they couldn't put them all in. So right there you get irritated people that don't have their character to play. At best I imagine they'd have...4-5? Let's say for this example they have five. My money would be on two new-like Claudio and Katarina or something-and then probably grabbing some of the more widely-played returning ones...say, looking at the Japanese list-King, Kazuya and Asuka.(who are all fairly well known characters who are played often.)
I mean I'm sure some would play it to enjoy the mechanics, but let's face it; it would feel bare bones as fuck. You'd be facing the same characters all the time, no ranking system, gods know what the netcode would be like for a demo(and remember: casuals-a big portion of the audience-will remember this and it'll stick.) No story mode, 'arcade mode' would basically be you fighting these five characters. It MIGHT have a practice mode but it would be utterly bare bones, making TR's look like VF4 EVO's.
And they would have to devote people to maintain this thing. It NEEDS to keep adequate netcode or else. They'll need to keep smoothing over the fact that the demo would be more for casuals(since a lot of returning players would probably not have their characters.)
They would end up with basically a shell of the game that really wouldn't benefit anyone at the end of the day. People would get some entertainment out of it, but also remember in that video: sometimes, after a demo, people *no longer feel the need to play the full game.* Some of the casual audience? May well fall here. The people who just want to bash buttons with friends who otherwise would have bought the game. Like it or not, a Tekken 7 demo would just not have been financially feasable in this day and age(I feel back in the day, demos served a better purpose, but markets, and fanbases, change over time), and I think it probably would have done either more harm than good or really just resulted in...nothing. People without the full game still would be unhappy. Again, in the video they describe how only a couple of the options will result in more sales, and it's probably just not worth it.
"But what about a beta?"
Okay, a beta might be a better idea. But it's not without it's problems either. As a disclaimer, about a year ago, I actually thought a beta was a great idea. I said as much, too. I had since changed my mind after thinking things over and listening to other opinions(as well as taking part in SFV's.) I don't think it would much help anymore.
For one, they of course need people to maintain this thing, as well. So that's less people on the development team. Next up, they likely would not have this beta running all the time; they'd need to devote too many resources to it. So what we'd end up with from now until early 2017(whichever month it drops in), are probably like...two weekends a month.
And we all know how beta weekends can go. Messed up connections, a billion people trying to cram in at once, netcode that even if it's good live might be iffy there because it's, well, a beta with a billion people trying to cram in, and about two million people who don't understand the meaning of the word 'beta', that means 'not complete yet' and get turned off from the game because they somehow believe it's the finished product. (Having taken part in many betas over several genres, I see this every single time.)
As an aside, I feel that some games benefit from betas; MMOs, MOBAs and the like. I also think that if Tekken 7 had not been in arcades first, it may have then benefit, but I feel fighting games are a different beast than the other types. (I'd probably need a whole other blog to explain why the other games seem to work out better than fighting game betas. Keep in mind the latter is something that is also not done as often in general.)
Also: They likely can't invite everyone, so they'll need to 'gate' the beta somehow. This usually happens through choosing people that sign up(starting slower, adding more), which gates your community; in an MMORPG that's one thing(more people, etc), but for a fighting game? Not so good. You need to make sure lots of skill levels get a chance. You can gate through preorders, but some people get very hesitant of the pre-order culture these days.
And again, at the end of the day, you get a few months of sporadic weekends-one, maybe two per month-when you then have to put the game down again. And if something goes wrong in a beta, it can fuck things up horribly. Canceled pre-orders(since, remember, a lot of people don't understand 'Beta Means Stuff Can Go Wrong'), and disgruntled fans.
At least in the current scenario, you basically just get 'disgruntled fans.'
Finally! Lest I forget...betas are for testing the game, not messing about. Far too often in MMO betas that I've been in, people just...play, give no feedback, and then wonder why shit is broken. I hate to be the one to break this to folks, but while yes, by all means have fun with them, betas are basically a sort of work. Like, fun work. That you may or may not pay for to get beta access. But they're not just 'to play the game.' They're called 'Beta tests' for a reason.
The Tekken Tour is probably one of the better bets they could have done(though I'd have loved Bandai-Namco EU to be better here, I feel they've been dropping the ball). I digress a little there though.(The discussion of the arcade first method is probably a topic for another blog, since IMO, there is no right or wrong answer there. It's just another method of releasing games, and Bandai-Namco are not the only ones that do it.)
At the end of the day, demos are risky, and betas are I feel better for other things(and also; risky still.) Companies need to sort of look at the entire situation here, and sometimes players miss the things that companies are looking for.
But yeah, that about explains it. I wanted to scribble this blog out since I know some tweets go by IRT Tekken 7: Why no demo, why no beta. I figured I'd explain a few of the issues.
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