Video game makers should bring back the best feature of the Xbox 360 Readers FeatureGameCentralPublished March 23, 2025 1:00am Not every Xbox 360 innovation caught on (Microsoft)A reader calls for one of the more forgotten aspects of the Xbox 360 era to be brought back, and help gamers get a better idea of what a games like before they buy it.I dont think theres any real answer to what is the best generation of video game consoles. It all depends on not only your age but what you were doing at that time in your life. The Xbox 360 era was a very happy time for me, so maybe that influences my positive feelings about, but I think theres more to it than that.The release of the Xbox 360 feels like the start of the modern era, in terms of digital downloads and online, and while that was always inevitable it only happened as soon as it did thanks to Microsoft. Which together with things like achievements is the sort of innovation thats been so lacking from them lately, especially in terms of things that Sony are then forced to adopt themselves to keep up.Backwards compatibility is the only similar things since then, but there is one feature of the Xbox 360 that I sorely miss and which I find no one seems to talk about. Perhaps theyve forgotten but back in the day it was a rule from Microsoft that every game, no matter what it was, had to have a demo. I miss that and I wish theyd bring it back.The reason that Microsoft changed the rules behind demos is that publishers found that if people played a demo they were actually less likely to buy the game. I dont think they ever explained why that was, but I think the assumption was that with games people were on the fence about, or couldnt really afford, they felt theyd already played it to some degree and so it was skippable.I kind of get that but it still seems a bit strange to me, since surely people wouldve liked some of the games they demoed, enough to buy the whole thing. Although I guess were talking averages here.By the end of the Xbox 360s life the rule had been taken away and demos were up to a publisher and most chose not to do them. The thing is, that was 15 years ago now and a lot has changed about gaming. There are less big name games overall and we learn very little about them before theyre released. Some arent properly announced until a few months until theyre out and they often get little or no hands-on previews from websites.At the time the Xbox 360 was getting demos for every game we knew a lot about them, through previews and interviews and often a good year or so of hype before its released. That is bound to affect how people viewed the demos.Maybe, after all that build-up, they thought the demo was a letdown, whereas now theyd be more wowed because they didnt even know what the game was until they started playing it. Indie games have got more expensive nowadays so demos for them are a lot more important than they used to be, and often its even less clear what an indie game is until you try it.Publishers must value demos to some degree because theyll often do beta tests for multiplayer games. These are usually released so close to the games release I cant believe they are at all useful in working out technical problems, let alone whether people liked it or not. Theyre just demos with a degree of plausible deniability if theres something wrong with it.More TrendingSony certainly didnt take any notice of everyone saying they hated Concord, and it came out anyway and, well you know the rest. So why not release demos for every game and then not only can people understand better what your games are, but companies can get advanced warning of a problem. Whether they choose to pay any attention to it or not is their business.By reader Cyclops Fantasy 7 Rebirth has a demo on PS5 (Square Enix)The readers features do not necessarily represent the views of GameCentral or Metro.You can submit your own 500 to 600-word reader feature at any time, which if used will be published in the next appropriate weekend slot. Just contact us at gamecentral@metro.co.uk or use our Submit Stuff page and you wont need to send an email.GameCentralSign up for exclusive analysis, latest releases, and bonus community content.This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Your information will be used in line with our Privacy Policy