KoA: Reckoning - Demo Coming Soon

Dhruin · January 11, 2012

Microsoft's Major Nelson lists an X360 demo for Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning for January 17th - a mere week away. For PC and PS3 fans, 38 Games Community Manager 'Muse' confirms a demo will be released for all platforms, though we don't know if the date will be the same:

We can confirm that a demo for Reckoning is coming, and it will be on all platforms. We'll have all the details for you very soon!

Founder Curt Schilling subsequently made some general comments about the difficulty in designing a demo for an open-world RPG:

We've always believed in the quality of the game, we better ALWAYS believe in the quality of what we make, from game to toy to comic etc.
The problem is the actual demo itself. Not specifically our demo, but ANY demo for a game with 2-300 hours of game play. How can you provide a demo that hits on EVERYTHING that makes your game awesome, without a 4 hour demo, or hit on just ENOUGH to make sure people see the depth in the world AND the combat?

That's the fear, always has been. I've played it, and I think EA did as good a job as could be done with a game of this type. Most of 38 argued against a demo for a long time for the reasons above.

Quick, think of the last time an OPEN WORLD RPG gave you a demo....

Ok now name the last time an OPEN WORLD RPG gave you a GOOD demo.....

It's VERY hard to do, having said that I think EA may have done a good job in setting up Reckoning for gamers that haven't seen the game yet.

If you are buying Reckoning and one of the hard core fans already I'd only buy it for the news that will be coming out shortly, in a few days..... That would be why I would buy it

While we're on Reckoning, a new trailer has also been released.
More information.

bagelobo · January 11, 2012

Developers are too lazy/cheap to make good demos and would rather slap together something taken directly from the game with minimal or no changes. Instead, how about creating something original that doesn't spoil parts of the main game. Like making a DLC, but releasing it as a demo instead of selling it.

JDR13 · January 11, 2012

Well hopefully the PC and PS3 demos won't be far behind. Xbox is the only major platform I don't own.

bagelobo said:
how about creating something original that doesn't spoil parts of the main game. Like making a DLC, but releasing it as a demo instead of selling it.

I like the concept, but I doubt most would see it as being profitable enough to spend the time on.

Twotricks · January 11, 2012

Cant wait.
This and Skyrim , i am set for a year ... or at least until GW2 and D3 launches...hehe

fatBastard() · January 11, 2012

bagelobo said:
Developers are too lazy/cheap to make good demos and would rather slap together something taken directly from the game with minimal or no changes. Instead, how about creating something original that doesn't spoil parts of the main game. Like making a DLC, but releasing it as a demo instead of selling it.

For one thing a demo that isn't a part of the game is not a very good indicator of what the final game is going to be like. As such the whole point of a demo is wasted.

Secondly calling developers lazy or cheap for not putting what is actually a considerable amount of time and resources into something that will generate zero income is a bit naive considering the financial state of most developers nowadays.

guenthar · January 11, 2012

If they would just bring back Shareware then all of the problems would be solved.

PS. I have bought games based on playing the Shareware version but never based on a demo.

rune_74 · January 11, 2012

Hmm I didn't know this was comming so soon....cool.

Funny how easy some people think it is to make games and such...yeah why not put the effort into developing a whole new area for a demo

crpgnut · January 11, 2012

Eek! I'm still playing Skyrim. The game itself isn't due till next month, right?

sakichop · January 11, 2012

i'm glad they are releasing a demo as i'm still on the fence. If the gameplay can make me forget about the graphics and effects then i'll pick it up.

crpgnut · January 11, 2012

I'm that way too, sakichop. I'm pretty sure I'll buy Reckoning, but I'll get the demo and finalize my thoughts one way or the other. I think it's a "win" for them to go this route. Too many people have questions about Amalur and I don't believe it will sell all that well unless they prove themselves. I fear the MMO influence. To me, MMO's suck.

azarhal · January 11, 2012

Demo will release next week for all platform… it will also give free DLCs for Mass Effect 3 (and ME3 demo will give KoA DLCs).

update: Demo FAQ on KoA official forums.

crpgnut · January 11, 2012

Thanks for the followup, azarhal!

skavenhorde · January 11, 2012

Origin download...I KNEW IT!!!

Oh well, guess it's about time I learned written Chinese anyways. I just hope they're smart enough to let me choose which dang language I want the game in

In case that didn't make any sense to some of you, Origin doesn't let you change the language setting. It sees I'm in Taiwan and forces the website to Chinese with no way of changing it.

TheMadGamer · January 11, 2012

Interesting how these videos contrast with the pre-release videos of Skyrim. They are not at all shy about showing the in-game UI. Compared to Skyrim, which seemed to only give bits and pieces of the UI away, they are quite confident about their game in this area.

sakichop · January 11, 2012

crpgnut said:
I'm that way too, sakichop. I'm pretty sure I'll buy Reckoning, but I'll get the demo and finalize my thoughts one way or the other. I think it's a "win" for them to go this route. Too many people have questions about Amalur and I don't believe it will sell all that well unless they prove themselves. I fear the MMO influence. To me, MMO's suck.

100% agree. I've tried mmo's and haven't enjoyed any.

sakichop · January 11, 2012

skavenhorde said:
Origin download…I KNEW IT!!!

Oh well, guess it's about time I learned written Chinese anyways. I just hope they're smart enough to let me choose which dang language I want the game in

In case that didn't make any sense to some of you, Origin doesn't let you change the language setting. It sees I'm in Taiwan and forces the website to Chinese with no way of changing it.

I assume that means no steam?

Deleted User · January 11, 2012

TheMadGamer said:
Interesting how these videos contrast with the pre-release videos of Skyrim. They are not at all shy about showing the in-game UI. Compared to Skyrim, which seemed to only give bits and pieces of the UI away, they are quite confident about their game in this area.

I wouldn't say it's an issue of confidence, I'd say it's an issue of trying to get as many buyers as possible. Skyrim didn't need to show anything and they were still going to sell millions of copies. Reckoning needs to show everything it's got in order to sell as many copies as they can. So there's a big difference there.

redman5427 · January 11, 2012

make it a demo with option to unlock whole game with payment- impulsive gamers everywhere with credit cards= windfall for reckoning

crpgnut · January 11, 2012

They'd do that but the whole game isn't quite finished....or so they tell us

redman5427 · January 11, 2012

Isn't it due the first week of Feb? Darn, not another delay

KoA: Reckoning - Demo Coming Soon

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