Demos are coming back in a big way, and that’s great news for gamers.

Older gamers will remember a time when demos were the norm. There was a time when any new PC game was preceded by a wide distribution of compact discs (or even floppy disks) that contained scaled-down versions of the game in question, often with just one or two levels to complete before being told to buy the full version.

Those discs were great. The system allowed potential players to “try before you buy,” to see first-hand if not only the game would run on a particular hardware setup but also to see if the player would even enjoy the game in the first place.

Throughout the ‘90s, demo discs were everywhere. You couldn’t get a copy of Gaming Whatever Magazine without also getting a demo disc (or two, or three) for the latest and greatest games.

Then the internet happened, and demo discs faded away. This was partially due to magazines themselves also fading away, so publishers had far less incentive to print a bunch of discs to distribute to a shrinking readership, but it might have also been because publishers were finding it easier and easier to just force the decision of ownership. If you really wanted a game on day one, you had to pay full price and ask for a refund if you didn’t like it (which wasn’t always available, depending on where you bought the game).

That sucked. Paying the full price for a game you only thought you’d like was anti-consumer in the extreme, especially when those same publishers would embargo reviews until the day of release (with a few notable exceptions).

But things have changed in recent years. Where demos were almost unheard of for two decades, they’ve returned in a big way on both PC and consoles.

Perhaps the most successful recent demo was Grounded. Obsidian’s new survival RPG hosted a demo in June and then went on to reach 1 million players within the first two days of release.

You can blame the ongoing coronavirus pandemic for the demo’s rebirth. Without conventions to get the word out, publishers and developers are desperate to get their games noticed. And with broadband internet more widely available and every console and PC being its own distribution platform, it’s easier than ever to get demos into the hands of potential customers.

Demos aren’t quite back to being the norm, but they should be. And with any luck, developers and publishers will find it more beneficial to let gamers “try before they buy” forever.