Earlier this month, Nintendo announced that it has plans to release E3 demos in select Best Buy stores across North America. Because fewer than 10 percent of Best Buy locations will be offering the demos during E3 week, not everyone will get a chance to play the unreleased games… so why won’t the demos come to the Nintendo eShop, for all Wii U owners to experience? Well, according to Nintendo World Report, the reason is because E3 demos don’t always function properly, and no one wants to show off a game that can break, which would probably leave a bad impression on players and viewers alike.
Makes sense.
Then why send them to BestBuy?
They’re going to have Nintendo People there manning the demo station like they do at E3
Thank you, now I understand.
Best buy has asociates wich means that they have trained people in case the games crash to fix it and tell people why it happen after all you dont want a system crash with a store full of potential buyers.
that may explain the 100 best buy deal, there beta not demo of full retail games yet.
…..
anyone remember this?
http://youtu.be/C990wzFsoho
Because Best Buy will reach fewer gamers and therefore won’t leave as widespread a bad impression as a demo that anyone with internet access on their Wii U could get and play, if it happens to break.
Because they are nice.
And thats the reason they are doing it timely instead of the whole day.
Plus Rich from IGN made a good point on Twitter, if you put e3 demos exclusively on eShop, it would be like preaching to the choir. What about people who need to be converted to Wii U, they won’t pay to get the console just to play a demo
Releasing e3 demos a couple days after e3 wouldnt be bad though. Nintendo doesnt even have ten demos on the wii u eshop
Makes 200% perfect sense. See nintendo knows whut theyre doin, unlike microsoft :/
It does make complete sense, but then why is that any different to displaying them in a shop? I’d say it would leave an even worse impression, as the people playing it in a shop are less likely to be aware of e3 and that the demos may not be fully functional.
It would be pretty amazing for them to be able to release working demos of e3 games on the eShop though. In terms of reaching out to the public, it would blow Microsoft and Sony out the water.
e3 demo are beta games, the eshop demos are releasing means that the games is done and nothing more they can change.
A message at the beginning of the demo that says something to the effect that this is a special demo build of a product that is still in production and is very likely to not work properly at times. We hope you enjoy this special E3 demo.
Actually… now that I read that out loud I can kind of see why it’s still a bad idea.
My wii u has frozen on me over 8 times so thats a bad impression right there. if a demo freezes i wouldnt mind just put a warning before you start playing
Because in Best Buy no hacker would put their hands on the precious code that is used to make the games.
It makes sense, but it’s still disappointing.
It is understandable though. Remember Fez being demoed at PAX, It crashed almost every time someone played it, and it had to be restarted all the time. I think the PC had to be rebooted a lot too. It was a disaster.
Makes sense. Still, Nintendo should increase the # of Best Buys that will have the demos in their stores.
“Because fewer than 10 percent of Best Buy locations will be offering the demos during E3 week, not everyone will get a chance to play the unreleased games”
not to mention the rest of the world…
Good point.
To have the demos at more locations would cause less effect. Less locations=Bigger events, and larger crowds who would be there specifically to try the WIIU. Simple.
soooooo i’m supposed to fly to the US to check those games out because they want “bigger events”?
It’s better than nothing. This costs money and, at least to my knowledge, Sony and Microsoft aren’t doing this. Nintendo isn’t obligated to do this. It’s better than nothing.
for me it’s pretty much as good as nothing
of course it costs money.. promoting a game always costs money.. however it helps drive sales and gets people to try the wii U who otherwise wouldn’t.. something nintendo desperately needs to do!
Oh come on, that doesn’t seem to stop Bethesda from releasing their games.
Lol
Have Nintendo announced the Canada Best Buy locations yet?
Just the cities that will host them, but not indicating which BB in the city.
God damn it! The worst part is that there will be E3 demos in Shaumburg of all places in Illinois but not Chicago. -_-
Tell me about it.
They didn’t really “go out of their way” to make sure most of us would get to go. Def sucks.
They could have done nothing. Think about it.
which doesn’t really help sales.. they’re not doing this out of goodwill they’re doing this to promote the wii U.. however they could have made it more readily available…
E3 has always been about the American public. They never held e3 in Europe. Maybe after e3 they will move the demos worldwide like they did with nsmbu and zombie u. I played them in Australia before it was released
That’s fair, but we’ve never gotten E3 demos before for a game, why would this be an different.
Hopefully those demos come out eventually.
Makes perfect sense, not disappointing cuz nintendo said “our fans BEEN wanting to play the e3 demos, this year we’re gunna make it happen”
And im drivin 40 mins to the culver city best buy. Lezz do it
Same here. Mine is only 25 minutes away, but if it were in another city, Id still go, I am after all a fan.
Couldn’t they just put the demos on the eshop in a certain time period of each day? And when you play the demo, you will have a time period to complete it ( so that you wouldn’t get spoiled too much) That way there will be less chances for it to fail. Anyone?
Wii U demo stations are different from the Wii Us in living rooms. They have a different, and simpler form of coding and development to reduce the mainstream cost. That is also a large reason Wii U demo stations are there instead of eShop demos.
Makes sense. I live in Houston so maybe I could go!
“the reason is because E3 demos don’t always function properly, and no one wants to show off a game that can break, which would probably leave a bad impression on players and viewers alike.”
come to think of it.. if that’s the reason then why are they putting them on display at all? makes 0 sense
No if they have a representaive to explain the game and the problems. Thats the reason that is timed too.
you could also include a note into a playable demo that people may encounter bugs which won’t be in the final version.. it’s that simple
they can also time the demos on wii U
the argument that they don’t want to show an unfinished product when they’re doing it anyway still makes 0 sense
It does cause some of those demos are so early that bugs can even damage a console to the end of not working no more.
i’ve never ever heard of a game damaging hardware.. ever
Well, (this is just one example) in Super Mario 64, if you tilt the cartridge to either side, it will cause your game to get all glitchy and potentially damage the system.
Even if you have a message, people don’t read. Releasing a demo that crashs constantly without a rep to reset and apologized would just give the trolls more fuel for the fire.
what do you think they’re gonna show at those events x_x
certainly not a demo that crashes constantly
Because people like you are just going to bitch and whine when the game doesn’t operate well despite it being a beta. Stop being lazy and get outside your house and make it an adventure.
Meanwhile for us Europeans…
Americans complaining they have to drive for 3 hours to play e3 demos, it’s still cheaper than an airplane ticket, and then you get to go home and play Scribblenauts, darn you UK English
not English :P
Wish I was though…
Nintendo we trust, smooch* ;-)
I will take my chances Nintendo. Send me them anyway to download. Not like we could play Demos more then 30 times anyway. Iff the demo crashes guess what? DELETE IT AND RE DOWNLOAD IT! Not that difficult.
More then likey when the Bestbuys in Canada get revealed I would have to go 2 hours north to get to a Bestbuy. NOT WORTH IT. Just put them in more BESTBUYS.
I meant would have to go 2 hours to get to a BestBuy THAT HAS THE DEMOS. I have a bestbuy like 25 minutes away but the odds that its coming there will be 1%. Unless the 21 Canada Bestbuys dont go to Quebec lol. Quebec wants to become its own country so they shouldnt count!
Hey I live in Quebec too!
Well that sounds like a pretty good reason actually.
Anyway where I live there are no Best Buy stores. Only Future Shop, a subsidiary of Best Buy.
Man, all i’m hearing is a lot of Bitching……
and people dont bitch that xbox one and ps4 in not doing this…makes no sense.
Is called selective retardation.
From your mother?
Am I the only one that thinks this is a lame ass excuse?
Nope. However I don’t think is is an official reason.
Yeah thanks Nintendo for putting the Bestbuy demos, at Greenwood, Indiana and not the capital of Indiana (Indianapolis). *Sighs* Yes it might not take long to get there but still, would be nice to have it near me.
I like the fact that the small cities are getting the love. I live in a small-medium city that never has any concerts, conventions, etc. and I thought I would have to drive 2 hours to the big city to play the demos. Now I learn it is within 2 blocks of my house. Yipee!
I don’t get the title of this article. “Are ‘always’ unlikely to hit Nintendo eShop.” This is the first time Nintendo has done something like this. I also don’t buy the excuse of not wanting to show E3 demos because they can break. That can still happen anyway even IF qualified personnel is there. Look at the Wonderbook demonstration from Sony last year. Look at E3 the past 3 years from Microsoft.
I highly doubt a glitch in a demo is going to prevent someone from purchasing a finished product when it arrives on store shelves. People that fickle probably were not serious about buying it in the first place.
Be grateful people always bitching about free things. “I got a free Apple pie… damn why it was not cherry?”
I’m not complaining about anything, I’m just pointing out that this article is basically BS as to the reason why they THINK E3 demos will not be available on the eShop. This all based off of some guy’s opinion. I haven’t seen anywhere that ‘Nintendo’ mentioned E3 demos on the eShop one way or another.
Are you going to E3? There is a good chance I may be going again. Nintendoland was my favorite section last year, but being an Xbox gamer and them having a new console on the horizon I just may be spending more time in Xbox and Sony sections.
Xbox gamer? BITCH YOU BETTER GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!!! lol
LOL in all fairness, I do own a WII U and I do play Nintendoland, something about throwing Ninja Stars can be so addicting.
Las Vegas gets no love :'(