Why? How could you take a sequel and make it look worse than the first one?

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Actually, Sony's own lack of releasing demos is a bigger piss off. Come on, Warhawk got a demo well over a year after release when the community was dying. It's nice that it's out there, but what a brain dead marketing move. Wipeout HD, Metal Gear Solid 4 and so on all wound up getting demos months after release.

Resistance, LittleBigPlanet and SOCOM being some of their marquee games in recent months don't have demos. Why? If you're confident in your product, give people a taste and they may bite (insert SOCOM joke here).

There's plenty of games I may have bought had I been able to try them.

I can see the reasoning behind thinking "well with no demo, they'll have to go and buy it if they want to try it", but Microsoft has proven quite readily that demos is the way to go. Sales and attach rates prove it.

And PSN titles not having demos is probably the biggest piss off. There's quite a few games I refuse to buy because I have no idea if I'll like them. Shitty, spliced together video packages (or nothing at all) isn't helpful.

Ugh, more demos damnit.

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But yeah, the way so many games have no demo pisses me off. Were it not for Valkyria Chronicles' demo, I'd probably not have it.

On the other hand, since I'm short for cash, while I really want WarHawk I've just been playing the demo over and over.

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And my wallet would compensate their business more if I had a taste of what I'm buying. I'm sure the same goes for many others.

@the7k: That's probably the biggest example of a demo doing good in my eyes.

I didn't know a thing about Valkyria Chronicles before the demo came up on the PAL store. I downloaded it on a whim and had quite a bit of fun. The more I played it, the more I enjoyed it (it remains one of the few demos I've played more than once). It was quickly purchased shortly after release because of that, and is now one of the most fun and aesthetically beautiful games I've played in years. Without the demo, and "SEGA" being on it, I would never have bothered.

Resident Evil 5's another one most likely. I dislike the way the series has gone and had no interest in this installment, but the splitscreen co-op I can play with my fiancee may tip the scales on a game I otherwise would never look at twice.

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Welcome to Kotaku. Post nicely now.

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A long time ago I was working for an Ad Firm, one of the "Big 10" here in Chicago. There was a big project at stake that had millions of dollars attached to an already busted budget. The CFO walked past my office and said right in front of me while talking to my manager, "If this guy doesn't get this done by Monday, I want him out of here without severance pay."

Ask me if the project got done on time.

I would imagine that is no different with large budget games that not only have a projected timed ROI (Return on Investment), but also the fact that Motorstorm was an "Show and tell" game that was to showcase the purported power and capability of Sony's new Console.

I agree, I much prefer working in (Open Cubical) environments that are based upon positive communication adn reward based reinforcement. Sometimes though, that doesn't work. You have to push limits with certain people and a good manager or team leader knows just how to do that with creatives. Some work better when pushed harder than others, some will wait till the last minute unless threatened and some work better when massaged gently with a bonus.

I am not condoning Phil's behavior, just simply stating that maybe he knew what button to push to get the gear going and judging from the release date and the quality of the game, I think he pushed the right one.

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