It’s simply baffling that demos aren’t more of a thing in the video game industry after circling their wagons around them in early 2000. It was the way to find new games and see what you enjoy, and tons of magazines came packed with demo discs that allowed you to sample the upcoming offerings from a multitude of studios. Perhaps it comes down to donning a permanent pair of rose-tinted glasses when we’re looking at the past, but demo’s simply don’t reliably exist in the modern era, and it’s a shame.
It’s actually newsworthy when an upcoming title has some form of a demo, allowing users to try the title before shelling out cash to play the full thing.
Perhaps this anomaly is being fully explored by Square Enix, however, as they remove the demo for Trails of Mana that allowed users to play the entire game through it. Throw on top of this the idea that Denuvo has been incorporated into the remake of the classic SNES title, and the frustration by Square Enix is readily apparent to even the densest.
Pirates found a way to bypass the limit of the demo by altering files that they received from Steam, rendering Square Enix usage of Denuvo DRM as generally worthless; Square Enix responded by removing the demo entirely from Steam. The problem, however, is that this is a protective measure taken well after the damage has already been done.
Removing the demo from the Steam store will not adversely affect those that want to pirate the title. The files have already been copied with fixes from scene groups readily applied, and it has spread like wildfire. All Square Enix has done is remove the possibility for users that are curious about the title to explore the world that they’ve created.
It’s a tale as old as time at this point, and it’s one that grows in scope almost monthly. Paying users are once again cast wayside and inconvenienced by developers attempting to fight piracy, a group that largely wouldn’t purchase the title in the first place. Yet cries fall on deaf ears as Square Enix pats themselves on the back for foiling plans that were carried out weeks ago.
Square Enix has not made a comment on whether or not we can expect to see the demo reappear on the Steam platform, although it’s frankly a non-issue at this moment. It’s perhaps best to explore YouTube and Twitch, for now, to see if the title holds something for you.
