Exclusive Demo Backlash

The recent release of the Call of Duty demo has stirred up quite a controversy. FilePlanet had cut a deal with Activision, the game's publisher, to offer the demo exclusively to their subscribers for a week or so prior to it being made available to the general public. Although this is a fairly standard practice a lot like including a demo CD in a magazine, gamers expressed a great deal of dissatisfaction over the arrangement. A demo is a promotional tool that increases sales, the argument goes, and should therefore be distributed to as many people as possible. This led some of the other major game sites to take up the cause, threatening to boycott the Call of Duty demo and refuse to carry the file for download even after the exclusive was over. In a surprising turn of events, Activision backed down and made the demo freely available to everyone. I doubt that it will be the end of exclusives, but it does go to show that if you complain loud enough, you might just reach someone at the top.