Backbreaker Demo Available, Post Your Impressions Here

[TheBest]

Re: Backbreaker Demo Available, Post Your Impressions Here

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2010/...re-update-140/

Not on this week's store update.

[e0820]

Re: Backbreaker Demo Available, Post Your Impressions Here

I was pessimistic about it releasing, maybe next week.

[Sting]

Re: Backbreaker Demo Available, Post Your Impressions Here

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2010/...re-update-140/

Not on this week's store update.

This is bush-league by Sony again I'm assuming. Why do we get screwed on demos?

[PolkHigh33]

Re: Backbreaker Demo Available, Post Your Impressions Here

This is bush-league by Sony again I'm assuming. Why do we get screwed on demos?

This is stupid .. I was looking forward to the demo, now I guess I will have to rent it ..

[dwevans]

Re: Backbreaker Demo Available, Post Your Impressions Here

PS3 Demo on EU PS Store today

[e0820]

Re: Backbreaker Demo Available, Post Your Impressions Here

PS3 Demo on EU PS Store today

How do you get demos from the SCEE Store?

[Linuxx]

Re: Backbreaker Demo Available, Post Your Impressions Here

I gotta play the demo before I even think about this as a buy. I guess if 505 wants more money they might wanna push this demo to get posted by Sony.

[dwevans]

Re: Backbreaker Demo Available, Post Your Impressions Here

I cant believe this. the backbreaker demo appears to have been removed from the proposed update today. The "heads up playstation store update" when I checked this morning had backbreaker demo releasing today and now it has been removed.

Gutted!

[nunogomes]

Re: Backbreaker Demo Available, Post Your Impressions Here

PS3 Demo on EU PS Store today

I´ve been on the EU and UK account just now and there is nothing in there... it is updated but without backbreaker!

[beastwork]

Re: Backbreaker Demo Available, Post Your Impressions Here

just got done reading some of the backbreaker forums on this issue. supposedly the UK demo should be there today. US demo should be available next week. I'm going to attach a really good writeup from those forums because i think it sums up how I feel about the whole PS3 vs Xbox demo/patch situation. In a nut shell i believe that microsoft and xbox have a battery of tests that they put all its digital downloads through.

Since PSN is free they probably don't have the necessary staff to turn around testing completion for patches and demos like xbox does. If i'm right on this PS3 probably has an earlier deadline for data submission than xbox has. I'm sure sony wants all of its licensed developers to succeed as it will result in more money for Sony and also less negative publicity about its second rate online service. I'm guessing that BB met the xbox deadline but missed the Sony deadline hence the delay. Given the lackluster manner in which the marketing for the game was handled none of this would surprise me if it were true.

at the end of the day this studio put its own neck in the noose and kicked away the chair. this is a ****-up of the highest order and it cost them a ton of money. There just is no excuse for this and with the NCAA demo coming out next monday, it does not look good.

Re: PS3 Demo Situation
I know that the number of people still following this "PS3 Demo Situation" thread is dwindling with each passing week. Those who own a 360 and have been playing the demo since May 21st or those who purchased the full retail copy for either system have no reason to be hanging out with us forgotten PS3 demo-desiring folk, so I completely understand. However, I feel that it's important enough to share some thoughts on this whole situation, regardless of how few people remain to read them.

This PS3 demo situation is a black eye to 505 Games and, by association, both NaturalMotion and Backbreaker as an up-and-coming franchise. I understand that the developers at NaturalMotion likely have little say in when the demo was meant to be released, but there are signs all around that show the team could've gotten more information if they'd really desired it.

First was the leaked 505 Games customer service email, which stated that the PS3 demo would be out Wednesday, June 9th. People didn't want to believe that, so it was "debunked," and NaturalMotion even started hyping that the demo "should" hit PS3 on Tuesday, May 25th, 2010.

However, all it took for me--just a simple gamer with no inside connections--to find out that the demo would not be released was a message on Twitter to the official @PlayStation account. Within an hour of asking them whether or not the demo would be out on the 25th, I'd received a message saying that it would not be on the store. It seems bizarre to me that a "nobody" in the industry like myself would be able to get more information than the game's developers had at that time, if we are to believe them (and I generally do).

Ever since that day, it's just been a comedy of errors regarding the demo. We hoped it would be out on Tuesday, June 1st, even though that was the day of the retail release. It didn't come out. We hoped that just meant it would be out Tuesday, June 8th (yesterday) in accordance to the 505 Games customer service email, but then the developers came here and said that the demo wouldn't be out until Tuesday, June 15th (next week); a full two weeks after retail release here in the States.

Meanwhile, a few weeks ago the EA Sports team was able to announce that the demos for NCAA Football 11--due for retail release on Tuesday, July 13th--would be out a month in advance of that date on Monday, June 14th for 360 and Tuesday, June 15th for PS3. Then news came out this past Monday that the PS3 demo date had changed.

Unlike the Backbreaker demo, however, the change was a positive one. Now the PS3 demo is apparently going to be hitting the PS3 next Monday, June 14th--the same day as the 360 gets it--despite the fact that the PSN store does not typically update on Monday.

Now, I understand as well as anybody else that EA Sports is a much bigger and more influential company than either 505 Games or NaturalMotion. However, something doesn't smell right here for the Backbreaker demo to continually be blamed on Sony when Sony's message to me all along was that developers/publishers control when content goes live on the PSN store. EA Sports changed their mind about the NCAA Football 11 demo coming out a day later for PS3, and they got that changed. It's been nearly a month for the Backbreaker demo since the 360 demo hit; are we, as gamers and consumers, supposed to believe that 505 Games is asking Sony to release the demo and Sony is just crossing their arms and saying, "No"?

It doesn't make any sense for Sony to want a demo to come out so much later on the PS3.

Unfortunately, this little demo situation has no doubt soured many PS3 owners and hurt the actual sales of the PS3 game compared to initial projections. While the 360 owns the majority of the current-generation football video game market, the PS3 crowd accounted for 45% of the 4.35 million copies sold of Madden NFL 10 last year. Essentially, nearly half of the video game crowd has been affected by the Backbreaker demo delay.

And, to be honest, any window of opportunity that 505 Games, NaturalMotion, and Backbreaker had seems to have closed now. The game was in development for at least three years, and the product put forth has a passionate but very small niche following and got killed critically, with numerous 5/10 and 50% review scores that will eliminate most of the casual market.

At the same time, EA Sports is beginning to integrate real-time physics into its titles beginning with NHL 11 and NBA Elite 11 this fall. If those physics engines work out--and early impressions of NHL 11 suggest that they do--then it would not surprise me at all to see NCAA Football 12 and Madden NFL 12 switching to that physics engine for next year's games. This year's "Locomotion" feature will just serve as a transitional period between the canned animations of old Madden and the physics-based gaming of new Madden.

For that, we all have to be thankful to NaturalMotion and Backbreaker for coming on the market and stimulating these changes at EA Sports; the largest sports video game developer in the world learning a lesson from a small team of developers. It just seems unlikely that, even if a Backbreaker 2 is developed and makes it all the way to retail release, there is a legitimate place for anybody else to share in the lucrative football video game market.

From the very beginning, I was on the fence about Backbreaker. I was interested in trying out the demo, and then seeing from there whether or not a purchase would be justified. Thanks to this whole mess with the PS3 demo, a purchase of the full title is out of the question for me. Sad but true.

[mestevo]

Re: Backbreaker Demo Available, Post Your Impressions Here

Kinda surprised they don't just shelve the PS3 demo at this point, the developer has to pay for bandwidth costs on PSN. Cost vs benefit has to be questionable at best a week after release.

[Linuxx]

Re: Backbreaker Demo Available, Post Your Impressions Here

I will still try the demo even after what now? 2 wks of being out...but buying this game now? I am 95% sure I wont. Plus now they are going to be releasing the NCAA demo next week and im 99% sure I will be doing that before this now.

[Spear]

Re: Backbreaker Demo Available, Post Your Impressions Here

Is the demo up on the EU store?

[TomBrady]

Re: Backbreaker Demo Available, Post Your Impressions Here

Nope

[Trustpt]

Re: Backbreaker Demo Available, Post Your Impressions Here

This is absolutely ridiculous.