7 Simple Solutions To The Gaming Industry's Biggest Problems

4. You Never Know What You're Buying

Solution: Mandatory time-limited demos using retail code.

Different to how I think video game advertising needs a considerable overhaul (which I'll get to soon), one of the most annoying issues with video games is never really knowing what you're paying for.

Comparisons to marketing are one thing, but I'm talking sheer performance, resolution or how something handles. Across the 8th generation we saw demos largely go away altogether, mostly because with the scale of production increasing, it's nigh-on impossible to siphon off a sliver of what's in progress; polishing it up for a separate release.

That said, the solution isn't a "vertical slice", but access to finished retail code, for a limited time. It is exactly, to the letter, what Capcom did with Resident Evil 2 Remake's "One Shot" demo.

Here, Capcom gave you 30 minutes with finished, launch day code, two weeks before the launch itself. It was the perfect way to get a feel for the game, you could play the title as it would be sold, and opt to purchase the full version straight after.

Many people talked about how they were incentivised to keep playing, and though that meant a bigger download for the rest of the game, already there's a far more natural onboarding process from demo to full title.

Why this isn't the norm, I have no idea.