How do you feel about game demos? What’s it take for you to play them?

The latest Steam Next Fest event started on Monday and like the one back in February, it’s chock full of demos to try out, including some of those featured at Summer Game Fest. With over a thousand demos and associated developer interviews and previews, you could dedicate the next week solely to Next Fest and still not scratch the surface of what’s available to sample. While I deplored the onslaught of gaming news over the past few days in yesterday’s discussion, my attitude towards demos is a complete 180 — the more demos available, the better.

I’m quite picky as to what games I purchase — or what dollar amount I’m willing to spend on a game — so to me, a demo version of a game I’m interested in is sometimes a requirement, especially if it’s a style of game I don’t normally play. And while you’re limited to playing these demos at Next Fest on PC, being able to try out games I could end up picking up on a Switch or PlayStation is also beneficial as cross-platform experiences are rarely different these days.

One of my favorite innovations that more developers are starting to embrace is the idea that if you buy the game you can continue where you left off in the demo. This is really nice for the story-heavy games like Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Houses and Triangle Strategy where the first few chapters don’t have to be repeated once you purchase the game. It’s also a way to get an early start on a game you know you’ll be purchasing, effectively acting as a limited early access.

So how do you feel about game demos? Do you like to play around with as many as you can to see what you may want to get, or do you stick to only a select few? And do you play demos of games you know you’re going to get anyway?