Gearbox can't promise Borderlands demo

By Robert Purchese Published 6 July, 2009

Although it would love to do one.

Gearbox has said that openworld RPG shooter Borderlands is unlikely to get a demo before, or even after, its planned October launch.

"We talk about a demo every day. We would love to do a demo," writer Mikey Neumann told Shacknews. "If and when we do one, I don't know if it'd be pre-launch or post-launch, because there's a lot of factors there."

"We would love to promise a demo, we can't quite yet, we just want to get the game done. That's always the hardest thing for developers to do - you never quite know how the time's going to work out. We're doing really well, but I can't promise it."

Gearbox re-unveiled Borderlands recently after months of silence, showing off stylish new presentation.

We tracked down the Mad Max-meets-Diablo PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 title at E3 for a closer look. Head over to our Borderlands preview to find out more.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (17) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Venkman90 #1 3 years ago

    I think all games should have a demo tbh, I was mooching through the ones on Xboxlive last night and frankly no where near enough good demos:

    No COD4, RSV2, Orange Box, Fallout3, Fable2, Halo3, Farcry2 etc...

    All big titles, no demo, sort of sucks imho

  • mkreku #2 3 years ago

    Although I would prefer a demo, I can suffice with reviews too. Lots and lots of reviews..

    Bah, I'm probably getting this on day one regardless :p

  • Dizzy #3 3 years ago

    Well I can't promise I will buy this game.

  • UncleLou #4 3 years ago

    If it's between a demo and spending the time improving the game instead, I am all for the latter. Demos are nice, but reviews (and forums) usually suffice for me.

  • Muneeb #5 3 years ago

    No demo = no buy for me.

  • schnide #6 3 years ago

    If this is a huge open world game, isn't it unsurprising they can't really do a demo? How would you demo that, or a game like Fallout 3?

    Although COD4, despite the never-ending sales, still won't pull me in without a demo because I've otherwise not played it. Bioshock sold one extra copy for me on the strength of the demo, as did Pure.

  • muscleblade #7 3 years ago

    No demo = dont care.

    I buy the game if it gets decent reviews.

  • Triggerhappytel #8 3 years ago

    It would be nice to have a demo but this game looks pretty sweet, so I'll probably rent it or something anyway.

    As for how to cope with demos in an open-world game, either give the player partial freedom like in the inFamous demo or block off parts of the city like Burnout Paradise. Failing that, just plonk the player in the game world and give them a 10 minute time limit.

  • miiiguel #9 3 years ago

    I'm not a fan of demos, they tend to spoil that "punch" of the 1st look. I prefer to read about the games rather than actually try them in their cripled version. That's my thing though, to each its own.
    Edited by 1 at 06/07/09 @ 11:33

  • Optimaximal #10 3 years ago

    They didn't give me a PC demo of Brothers in Arms: Hells Highway either... So I relied on word of mouth and ended up not buying it.

    If companies won't let me make a decision without blind purchasing, I'm going to have to listen to my contemporaries... Sorry publishers, but if you make shit, I'll hear about it one way or another!

    (that said, ShopTo have it for £19.99... That's pretty cheap and very close to the £17.99 sweet spot/impulse buy)
    Edited by 1 at 06/07/09 @ 12:34

  • WinterSnowblind #11 3 years ago

    In all fairness, this is the type of thing that would be difficult to do a demo for.. I don't see people complaining that Fallout 3 never had a demo. Borderlands looks great, and although it'd be nice to be able to try it out first, I don't mind that the developers would rather put more time into developing the actual game, rather than working on a demo.

    If you really need to try it out first you could.. rent it?

  • kangarootoo #12 3 years ago

    Seems a fair comment. Why tit about with a demo when you have proper work to do making the game?

    I don't get this "no demo = no sale" business. I assume you all have access to a local games rental shop? That there is your demo, except it isn't limited the way a demo is and will only cost you a few quid for a weekend worth of demoing.

    Big deal? I think not.

  • Freek #13 3 years ago

    Rental shops? No, they don't exist anymore, nobody rents games. At least not where I live. The few rental shops that are still barely around, only do DVD and Blu-Ray.

    And demos are a good way of finding out about unexpected titles. Red Faction for example was totally not on my radar, until I heard about the fun demo, tried it and bought the game based on it.

    Sure, it's not essential, but it's always nice.

  • Triggerhappytel #14 3 years ago

    @ Freek - you don't even live near a Blockbuster? I thought there was pretty much one in every large-ish UK town? There's three within about 15 minutes of where I live.

  • LowEnergyCycle #15 3 years ago

    Anybody who says "no demo, no sale" must have a very small and boring video-game collection.

  • Freek #16 3 years ago

    I'm sure there is, except I live in Holland, the land where rentals go to die.

  • muscleblade #17 3 years ago

    I think the no demo= no sale would have worked the oppsite way with Dead Space among others.

    It was more like: Demo = No sale in Dead Spaces case im afraid. The demo was crap - but the game was fantastic.