Capcom's Dead Rising: Case Zero, the downloadable "prequel" to the upcoming Dead Rising 2, has attracted over 300,000 players in its first week of availability, according to the game's Xbox Live Leaderboards.
Gamasutra sister site GamerBytes notes that over 328,290 entries appear on the game's public Leaderboards, suggesting strong sales for the $5 title.
The strong response to the game is significant given the game's critical reception as the kind of release you would usually see as a free demo made available in advance of an anticipated game's release.
In this way the game may serve as a test case for publishers thinking about charging for early access demos for future anticipated games.
Notably, experience and items earned in Case Zero will be transferable to Dead Rising 2 when it hits stores later this month.
Devs be warned: Dead rising case: zero offers far more than a traditional demo does, So if you attempt to offer a demo like any sports game where a player get s a choice of two teams and gets to play for a quarter of the game you will suffer a poor response.
I bought and purchased case zero myself but it has a small leveling system, a save system, multiple endings, achievements. It is more like a very small game rather than a demo to be honest and dead rising already allows more variety and re-playability than most games do due to the large number of Items that can be used as weapons . Not to mention the fact that some stats from case zero will be transferable to the actual dead rising 2 and well there's a lot more going for this than the typical demo.
In all honesty I hope this doesn't give way to a trend because I definitely can foresee it being abused.
However two console games that offered free demos and received a boost in sales due to it were mass effect 2 and fable 2. I purchased both games after playing their demos that had about an hours worth of content available.
Seeing as how there is also a free demo for Case Zero, it sounds like the critics are really struggling for ways to be afraid of this interesting new release model.
The free demo was much more restricted than the $5 version which is billed as a prequal mini-game more than a pre-release demo. I only played the free version, and was not impressed, given how little the title has changed (why can't i walk and aim?) I will be passing on Dead Rising 2 until it hits a bargain bin...seems way to similar to the first dead rising with mildly improved graphics.
@ Joe, you can walk and aim, I downloaded the game not the demo so can't compare the two. Also, this was done by another dev using the same engine, etc., but wasn't a good example of how the actual game will play as there was some slow down and longer load times than in the demo I was allowed to play of Dead Rising 2.
I finally unlocked Case Zero this weekend. I downloaded the demo last week but never had time to play it. When I realized how cheap it was I went ahead and just paid for it. I was pretty amazed at how much they were able to pack into the download size and price. The ability to transfer your level and whatnot over to the final game really made me happy. I've played many demos in the past and am often left hanging as to whether or not I will eventually pick up the game. I was originally planning on waiting for Dead Rising 2 to be out a month or so before picking it up, but after Case Zero I went ahead and threw the money down for the pre-order. I really liked the first one and this made me more excited for the sequel than I originally was. I hope more game companies devise options like this in the future. I am fine paying a few bucks for a story prequel as long as it isn't a demo, and subject it a demo's limitations. It was really smart of them to put this kind of thought into what is essentially a really elaborate demo for the Dead Rising 2 game. I will agree that the load times are horrific.
I bought and purchased case zero myself but it has a small leveling system, a save system, multiple endings, achievements. It is more like a very small game rather than a demo to be honest and dead rising already allows more variety and re-playability than most games do due to the large number of Items that can be used as weapons . Not to mention the fact that some stats from case zero will be transferable to the actual dead rising 2 and well there's a lot more going for this than the typical demo.
In all honesty I hope this doesn't give way to a trend because I definitely can foresee it being abused.
However two console games that offered free demos and received a boost in sales due to it were mass effect 2 and fable 2. I purchased both games after playing their demos that had about an hours worth of content available.