Topic: eShop Demo use limits - Thoughts?

I have been curious as to why Nintendo has limited the use of demos in two ways, both in launches and in content.
Has Nintendo released an official statement explaining why they've made this decision?
If not, has anyone actually figured out a sensible theory as to why they have?

I checked the history of this topic, there's only been one discussion on it from 3 years ago, and I'm not into necromancy hoo. Tis a ghastly magick, hoot!

I have no idea. It's one of stupidest thing Nintendo made this gen.

It seems like a really weird thing to do considering that most of the demo's aren't that long anyway. I played like 2 song from that miku hatsune demo and suddenly next time i try to play it got deleted since it only had 1 demo use like seriously dumb.

It may be arbitrary, but I seriously doubt it actually takes anyone 30 tries of a game to decide whether or not they want to buy it.

You're going to find a lot of people ready to justify it. Like everything Nintendo.
It's just another absurdly stupid thing only Nintendo does nowdays, though.
The point is not how many tries it takes you to make a decision. It could be one or one hundred - who cares. The point is that you are limiting something that is basically a vehicle for advertising. It's like making a commercial but you can't see it more than x times.
In the end of the day I don't care - yes I do make up my mind in less than 30 tries. But it just makes Nintendo & Company look incredibly stupid. Especially with other platforms now giving away full games for free ad aeternum. The demo of Color Zen only had 3 tries. THREE. Clearly, they were too afraid people were going to enjoy the demo too much. The full game is free on iPhone by the way.

Not so much "justifying" as it is simply choosing not to be outraged at something that has no effect on me whatsoever. Life's tough enough as it is without going out of my way to be offended by non-threatening things.

I imagine that being mad at stuff all the time is exhausting. How do people find the energy to do it?

Publishers are free to not use it, so if you're complaining about a non-Nintendo game, complain to that publisher

I think it's fine, but seeing as the Bravely Default demo has its own content apart from the main game, basically making it its own mini game, it shouldn't be limited.

Because it's a demo, and it's free. It's like complaining that they don't let you take a bin into the chocolate factory to fill with samples. It's there to give you a taste of the content, that's it. Also this.

Do you think it's odd though how most publishers have gone with the default 30 uses? I think that's rather odd.

Well you did fork out $99-$299 for the console that runs them, so that's not 100% true.

And I'm not complaining about it at all. I'm asking why the decision was made, because it's a strangely arbitrary thing. It's like if every Nintendo 3DS console also came with this one, wierd, blank-icon software on the home screen that did nothing. You can delete the one blank software using Settings if you don't like it, but why was it there in the first place?
I think that's a reasonable analogy to convey the angle I'm coming from.

Because with the exception of a few titles (Super Smash Bros., Bravely Default, Project Mirai DX, Final Fantasy Theatrhythm, Etrian Odyssey IV, World Conquerers II, Color Zen & Style Trendsetter Demo 2) the demo limit will practically never be reached.

It's not arbitrary. Most people playing a demo will never get to those 30 uses; they'll either buy the game before that or simply decide they don't like it. For those people who really enjoy it, they might play the demo for all 30 uses because they can. Those people might be less likely to buy the game if the demo offers them enough to keep playing again and again. Anyone who has played the demo 30 times must enjoy it, and therefore you're giving them the push to actually buy the product, because the people who would have used it 30 times are the people who aren't just going out and buying it. Some of those people may still not buy the product, but in those cases, absolutely nothing was lost from the publishers standpoint. For the cases where the people finally make the purchase though, the practice was worth it.

TL;DR - The practice means a slight boost in sales, and worst case scenario hurts the company in no way whatsoever (No, people whining online about not getting more than 30 tries at a free product does not hurt the company).

From a business standpoint there is zero reason not to put a limited use on the demo where it provides more than plenty of time for you to sample it. If you're here honestly curious about how this practice benefits the publisher, there's your answer. If you're here because you're complaining about only getting 30 uses on a free demo, then get over it. It's their product.

Most games that sport 30 uses have such a ridiculously small amount of content that there is no way anyone could be satisfied. I raise the example BlazBlue: Clonephantasma, which you are additionally limited by how much time you can play the game for, which is 2 minutes at a time, before it kicks you back to the game's menu screen. It is not restricted in two methods, but three.

Many demos are similar in which they supply you 5-15 minutes of the game. I cannot see anybody playing that fractional content for a whole 5 hours or more. Additionally, most of these games allow you to restart the demo from the demo's menu, without consuming a use. Therefore the launch restriction is rendered moot.

The push for a person to buy the product is the promotional card at the end of the demo going "This demo is but a insignificant speck compared to the full game, so you should buy it!" that they'll see 30+ times. In the case of something like Super Smash Bros., they'll always be teased by all those characters and stages that they might want to play as, but cannot until they buy the full game.

Permanently Removing access to content that the person got for free doesn't make them want to buy the content they didn't even play. (cripes, can you imagine if Advertising worked this way, and disappeared after you'd seen it X amount of times? That'd be a miracle!) Perpetually dangling the paid content in front of the person's eyes does that. Take the Mii Plaza for example. Or the "new DLC" notifications on the 3DS menu.

I've explained elsewhere in this post why a large, but limited number of uses is a strange, slightly detrimental decision. Now I'll highlight why a small, limited number of uses is even moreso.

Not all demos have 30 uses. In fact, some demos, like Color Zen and Etrian Odyssey offer as few as three.
People who want to preserve their uses of a demo are likely to put off playing it if it only has a few, until the time where they feel that they are ready to enjoy and get a reasonable impression out of it. A system that incites conservative people to postpone the trial (and subsequent purchase) of your product I could hardly consider good marketing.

It's not about indecisiveness
The thing is, with some games the demo is not just used for "try before you buy" i.e. figuring out if you like a game or not. And even if it did, there are flaws with a launch-count method of restriction, such as an unenforced playtime which System Sleep can easily circumnavigate, and who says you won't waste a few uses launching the game but then closing it because perhaps you were distracted with something else? Additionally, what about the case of shared consoles?

Back to the original point, a lot of games have released demos before the full game is out. Some people use the demo to hype themselves up for the full game release. (a current example is Mirai DX) Allowing a demo unlimited use actually generates incentive to buy the game, because the demo is always available, always teasing the person to purchase the full game every time they see it on their 3DS. However, once a demo's 30 uses are consumed, you're likely to delete it and forget about it.

Some demos have practical uses beyond simply trialing the software.
The Bravely Default demo has a lot of content. In particular, my playthrough of it on Hard difficulty has clocked up 18 hours so far. Now THAT's something you can say "well you obviously like the game". And you don't even need to know nor limit my uses. It might be 1. It might be 29. Running out of uses is not going to give me incentive me to purchase the full version any faster than what I would normally do. (due to things like financial restrictions, game backlog, availability etc, of the person: Having a demo always available as a reminder is a GOOD thing, not a loss to the business)
Bravely Default also provides additional items for owners of the full game. What if you didn't complete everything you wanted to do in the demo by the time your uses were up?

And finally, the thing that inspired me to make this thread. The Super Smash Bros. demo cannot communicate multiplayer with the purchased version of the game. I own the full title, but what if I want to play with others who do not? I have to consume uses of my demo version. Once I run out of uses on the demo, even though I own the full game, I cannot play with other demo players.
This is really the only time the demo limit affects me directly, but I wanted to take a look at the whole concept.

Not a fan of the limited use, however it did make this more special!

Along with any other special demo...to think that smash demo is a year old in 6 days!

It's just one of those weird Nintendo things that doesn't seem to have rhyme or reason. Sure, it's not harmful, as most have said 30 tries is usually enough to evaluate a game but it does make you wonder why the limit is imposed in the first place. Some very good points raised @Blathers.

30 tries is more than enough to determine if you want the game or not. 2 tries is just stupid though.

Ah bugger, I must have missed that.

Very dumb. Very dumb. I don't think they should have a limit. I myself have never exhausted the limit and probably never will. It's still stupid and should be removed. It's like they think people will download a demo and see it as the full game. You don't get near the experience of the full game. Heck some demos don't even give you the feel of how the game will actually be. I think they should remove the limits.

I think you can still download it... Or is the available demo limited?

I know some special demos that got openly released after a while kept the unlimited uses, like the MH4 demo.

As for limited uses in demos, I don't really care about it. I've never used any demo more than three or four times. If the demo is good/long, I usually just leave it open on the system until I'm done with it.

You can still redownload the special demo (dowloaded it again to play a bit Px), however unlike the other "special" demos that are not really special any more, you could only get the special smash demo from codes, not sure if it also came with the limited edition XL...doubt it.

the fact that the demo use limit is practically meaningless doesn't make it less idiotic.
This is exactly the kind of small imperceptible things that are gradually changing the way we play games and are forcing us to give up all the rights we used to have. Yesterday the demo was free and unlimited. Today it is free and limited. Tomorrow you'll be charged for it. Of course when that happens it's going to be your fault.
And as far as I know you can still be critical of things and live a long and happy life.