POP demo "not planned"
Too many are "awful", says producer.
Hot on the heels of the Far Cry 2 team's decision not to produce a consumer demo of its open-world shooter, Prince of Persia producer Ben Mattes has confirmed that there's no plans to do one for the Ubisoft Montreal stable-mate either.
"Not planned," Mattes told us at the studio earlier this month. "Doing demos of open-world games is a technical challenge; plus we're not convinced we need to. It's a brand that has some history, some built-in fan-base and we can benefit a little bit from that. Whether you like Sands of Time, Warrior Within or Two Thrones, chances are you're going to love this game because there are elements of all of those in it."
Mattes also noted that a demo can often do more harm to game's chanced than good. "There's just so many awful demos," he added. "Let's face it, releasing a demo when you also have an E3 version to put together, and you're beta etc... It's not the kind of thing that' s going to allow you to put together a really polished demo.
"There's a reality of production we have to live with which means if we did put together a demo there's a potential that it wouldn't be at the level we want it to be. Then what are you doing? You're doing your game a disservice by putting it in players' hands before it's ready. Nobody wants that."
Fair enough. The game's due out on PS3, 360 and PC - alongside a unique DS version - this Christmas. Our detailed impressions of the E3 build are elsewhere on Eurogamer today.