Shadowrun demo dated

By Oli Welsh Published 23 May, 2007

On Marketplace 6th June.

A demo for cross-platform multiplayer shooter Shadowrun will be available on Xbox Live Marketplace on 6th June, according to developers FASA. But there's no word of a PC demo being released as well.

The Microsoft-published title is exclusive to Xbox 360 and Windows Vista, and will be the first game to allow multiplayer across the two platforms, via Xbox Live and Vista's Games For Windows Live service.

Shadowrun will actually hit shop shelves a few days before the demo, on 1st June. This unusual delay is down to fears it would be overshadowed by a little something else Microsoft has going on at the moment - the Halo 3 beta.

"We'd rather release the demo at a time when players can focus their attention and time on Shadowrun, i.e., not in the middle of the Halo 3 beta," confessed a FASA representative on the official Shadowrun forum. "We hear that's a pretty cool game, too."

Instead, they're hoping to turn the dominance of Bungie's behemoth to their advantage, by picking up players left with a deathmatch-shaped hole in their lives (or Lives) when the beta closes. The Halo 3 beta itself will give players a nudge in Shadowrun's direction when it becomes unavailable.

The fairly hefty demo is unlimited, time-wise, and will feature three chapters of training, both multiplayer and solo bot player modes, one map, two races (elf and human), four spells, three gadgets and six weapons.

For more on Shadowrun, check out the 360 and PC gamepages for links to hands-on impressions, an interview, and Eurogamer TV coverage.

Picture of Oli.

About Oli Welsh

Oli is Eurogamer's acting deputy editor and reviews editor and likes to take things one word at a time. He is among the best dressed people in South London.

Read more articles from Oli by visiting the Oli Welsh archive page.

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Comments (25) Latest comment 5 years ago

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

  • ZuluHero #1 5 years ago

    i'll wait for the demo then thanks - im really unsure of this atm...

  • quantumsheep #2 5 years ago

    ditto!

  • Scurrminator #3 5 years ago

    its on pnet if you want to try it now

  • Steroyd #4 5 years ago

    Isn't this the same price as a next gen game? o_O

    And it's MP only like Warhawk and Socom.

  • trav #5 5 years ago

    "i'll wait for the demo then thanks - im really unsure of this atm..."

    +1

  • Scurrminator #6 5 years ago

    nah you can play solo with bots too, if you - you know - read the above article.

  • ZuluHero #7 5 years ago

    Pnet is playing up for me atm Scurrminator, i can't seem to get it to connect :/

  • souljacker2000 #8 5 years ago

    Looks pretty pants... wont b paying for this if its just mp

  • souljacker2000 #9 5 years ago

    Looks pretty pants... wont b paying for this if its just mp

  • gizmo #10 5 years ago

    Halo3 beta? Spent 20 mins on it, and it hasn't crossed my mind since.

    All that went through my mind was 'Halo2, BTSIDI'

  • TheRealBadabing #11 5 years ago

    That's got to be the worst excuse for holding back a demo that I have ever heard.

    The amount of coverage the game has had recently has drummed up at least a bit of curiousity for a lot of players. A demo is for those people, not just the Halo brigade.

    Was going to get this on day one but now I might as well wait until after Halo 3 beta is over. After all, no one will want to play anything else until then, right FASA?

  • asphaltcowboy #12 5 years ago

    cool, looking forward to this!

  • Xerx3s #13 5 years ago

    its on pnet if you want to try it now

    Did you try it? What did you think of it?

  • Uncle_Fishboy #14 5 years ago

    Looks CACK

  • Machetazo #15 5 years ago

    I hope I'm not letting myself in for a quick trip back to GAME to sell the thing back to them a couple days after I bought it. Yeah, I'm really going to hold off buying a full game I've been anticipating, lest I lose a few precious hours of gifted beta time...Not like we don't have till June 10th, or anything.

    I'm disappointed, as the demo ought to be out before the game, in order, to you know promote sales. I do not like buying blind.
    Edited by 1 at 23/05/07 @ 16:41

  • optimusprym8 #16 5 years ago

    dunno when I asked about it in my local GAME the muppet behind the counter just kept jabbing his sweaty paw at the word "online" in the notes unable to tell me what it meant... I think he thought it meant that GAME was only selling it online, not that it's only got online gaming... why can't they just hire pretty girlies with big boobies.

  • Scurrminator #17 5 years ago

    i tried it, for five minutes - and i want those five minutes - back - what do you think :)

  • Machetazo #18 5 years ago

    Scurr - Could you list some of the problems you encountered, for the non-uber Journo/dev types amongst us? I mean, FASA were saying they'd playtested the same map for three years, without tedium setting in? Were they telling porkies, from your experience?

  • Caimbeul #19 5 years ago

    no pc demo yet...are they giving the console peeps a chance to get used to the game before the mouse and keyboard division come in and tear them to pieces?

  • Sir_TimAlot #20 5 years ago

    I was looking forward to this badboy, got demo from pnet and loved it, really is my kinda game though and i reckon it will only attract fans. Looking forward to seeing how the cross platforming gameplay is received
    Edited by 2 at 23/05/07 @ 17:28

  • kangarootoo #21 5 years ago

    @TheRealBadabing

    "That's got to be the worst excuse for holding back a demo that I have ever heard."

    Seems fair enpough to me. The purpose of a demo is to a) drum up interest amongst gamers and press and b) get a reaction from people playing the demo and perhaps make some tweaks in response to their input. Neither of those things is going to happen if everyone interested in mp shooters is playing something else (and for a while at least, most of them are)

    Anyway.

    Personally I've been in the "what a waste of a license" brigade on this one, but I'm trying to be more adult about it and give it a fair shot. Maybe it will be fun regardless of the Shadowrun attachment, in which case hurrah as fun games can be thin on the ground at times.

  • TheRealBadabing #22 5 years ago

    @kangarootoo

    Marketing money is meant to drum up interest, demos are a part of this but tend to be relatively cheap. Press trips, fan-site resources, print advertising etc cost serious cash. If demos were so useful, why bother with the other expensive stuff?

    Betas are for play testing and tweaking. Apparently they have been doing this on some maps for years. Demos have nothing to do with testing or getting feedback, especially at this late stage.

    A demo after retail release falls in the same category as review sites not receiving a copy...very suspicious.

    Not wanting to repeat myself (but I will of course); FASA are effectively saying their retail game doesn't stand up to a beta of a title 6 months from release. Fair enough to be realistic but saying something so damaging to the game in the week before it hits retail is almost as incompetent as a Sony Exec.

  • Haloboy #23 5 years ago

    This game has looked severely dodgy from the word go. And the way they are handling things only stem to make me even more wary that it's going to end up a right stinker, on both platforms.

  • Scurrminator #24 5 years ago

    i'm not going to say things i think is wrong with it, thats not fair being as ive played it early - you should hopefully see reviews and such before its out and make your own mind up - but wait for the demo id say.

  • kangarootoo #25 5 years ago

    @TheRealBadabing

    Whatever your marketing budget is spent on, demos also drum up interest and from personal experience I can say that often demos are created for this purpose alone.

    As for saying damaging things. I don't think they are saying their game won't stand up. I think they are simply saying that when something with a lot of hype behind it is treading the boards, people often don't get the chance to see how good anything else is as their attention is all focussed in one place. That when a powerful marketing machine is in motion, the quality of competitors' products actually becomes less of a factor in how well they perform.


    Edit:

    "demos are a part of this but tend to be relatively cheap"

    Just to pull you up on this one. Some demos can take a month to prepare (as they are often made before the features they demonstrate are properly finished). A month of time from a team of 40 people (my guess, but not an unreasonable one) is hardly cheap. There is then the non-financial cost of how producing a demo can affect the continued production of the finished title (hacks for demos often stay in place, requireing additional work down the line to sort out).
    Edited by 1 at 24/05/07 @ 12:59