Burnout Paradise PC Demo Will Offer Entire Game

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Rather than release a small demo of its open-world racer Burnout Paradise, developer Criterion has revealed that when the PC version arrives in February, the entire game, complete with online multiplayer, will be available for free through a limited trial.

"We want all our PC players to be sure it runs perfectly on their system, before they commit to buying it," Criterion wrote on its site. "But there's a lot of game to show you."

"So rather than restricting what you can do, we're letting you play through the start of the full game for a limited period...You can go anywhere in Paradise City and check out everything on offer," it clarified. All in-game events will be available.

"Obviously, there's a limit to just how much you can do and for how long...we hope you'll agree that there's plenty there to give you glimpse of what the full game has to offer." The restrictions were not specified, but time and or in-game progress are likely criteria.

The demo will be released via criteriongames.com and ea.com in February, as well as through "millions of disks." Once installed, the disk will no longer be required. A store within the game will let players upgrade to the full game.

Chris Faylor was previously a games journalist creating content at Shacknews.

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  • reply
    December 8, 2008 9:32 AM

    While I applaud them for this effort, I hope that the darker side of the PC community do not turn around and bite them by hacking.

    • reply
      December 8, 2008 9:55 AM

      yeah it would be a real shame to see them get burned for trying to offer something pc gamers have wanted for a long time.

    • reply
      December 8, 2008 10:17 AM

      i imagine they thought about it and realized that the full game was going to be pirated anyway, no matter what kind of demo they released, if any. they probably also realized that a certain number of potential customers wouldnt buy without a demo and might actually pirate it as a demo then never actually get around to buying it... and so, correctly, figured that they might as well stop fretting over it and provide their customers with whats needed to give them (the publishers) the very best chance possible to generate a sale and stop sweating the piracy thats going to happen ANYWAY.

    • reply
      December 8, 2008 2:16 PM

      Who cares.. they wouldn't buy it anyway.

      • reply
        December 8, 2008 5:17 PM

        That's a pretty naive assumption. Plenty of (I'd even go so far as to say the vast majority of) pirates definitely can afford the games they're stealing, and they frequently buy games which are harder to crack like those on Steam.

      • reply
        December 8, 2008 7:26 PM

        So untrue. Sure a bunch would never have bought it under any circumstances, but if it is a widely available crack or 1-step hack that isn't that large then I imagine there will be some insane piracy.

    • reply
      December 8, 2008 6:31 PM

      Will get hacked in an instant.

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