Sorry PS3 Owners, Atlus Pulled The Catherine Demo From PSN

By Spencer . February 7, 2011 . 12:42am

The official Catherine twitter tweeted a disappointing notice – distribution for the PS3 version has ended.

Why? Apparently, the Catherine demo was in limited quantities. An Atlus tweeter explained downloads have hit the planned number, so distribution of the demo is over. The Catherine demo is still available for Japan region accounts on Xbox Live and you don’t need Gold membership to access it.

Atlus released the Catherine demo less than two weeks ago on January 27.

Read more stories about Atlus & Catherine & PlayStation 3 & PlayStation Network on Siliconera.

RootBeerKing

Wow that was fast… Glad I downloaded it the day it went up.
Ashgail

What? I don’t get why Atlus did this
- ChibiD
  
  companies have to pay for the bandwidth of the demo. since the game has a lot of hype on it, it has probably been downloaded a ton. Adding to the fact that the PSN is basically region free the PSN demo probably got swarmed and atlus reached the limit that they were willing to spend on distributing a demo
  - Ashgail
    
    I see…. Cheers for the info
  - malek86
    
    Well, at least, it probably means there is more interest in the game than they predicted (I don’t think they wanted the demo to only stay up for a week). That’s good.
  - Aoshi00
    
    That’s true, but the 360 demo is also region free for the US 360 systems as well. I got the demo on both (Students of Round demo is up as wel), but haven’t played the 360 one yet.. guess I’ll just wait for the game. I hope NCSX wouldn’t screw over w/ my pre-order bonus again, they missed my Last Story artbook/CD even I pre-ordered two months ago.. P-A took my Gyakuten Kenji order for LE but later said they only got the collector’s edition, not pleased…
- Kunio_kun
  
  Because Atlus Japan wants to alienate a large segment of its’ fanbase just like Atlus USA???
  - Shadow_Raskolnik
    
    Not really, if you had read ChibiD’s explaination you would get a better reason why this happened.
Gordy Sqrl

Limited quantities?

For a digital demo?

There’s a compound word to describe that, but posting it here is frowned upon.
- Kaishou
  
  bandwidth cost.
- STiger
  
  There was a download limit for the Tales of Phantasia X and Tales of Phantasia: Narikiri Dungeon X demos. I think there was one for the God Eater Burst demo as well?
  
  Those were available off the Japanese PSN store though and were rehosted across the internet. 8D
- Aoshi00
  
  The demos for DS games on the Wii (at least for Japan) had a limited time as well. Like the demo Gyakuten Kenji 2 it would only be up for a little bit more.. and those demos are temporary and not even saved on your DS..
HarryHodd

Glad to see this game is highly anticipated. I love the demo. Everyone that has played it with me has liked the game.
malek86

Maybe it’s just me, but I’ve noticed a number of demos on PSN seems to have disappeared over time. For example, Valkyria Chronicles is nowhere to be found now. I don’t remember seeing this happen on XBL, unless it was a specific timed deal (although I might be wrong).

Is this because of the bandwidth usage that Sony makes developers pay, so that it makes it too expensive to mantain a demo that wouldn’t serve much purpose anymore?
- Chris Taran
  
  Bingo.
  - malek86
    
    Well that sucks. One of my friends on another forum recently bought a PS3 and wanted to try VC, but couldn’t do it because the demo was taken offline.
    - Testsubject909
      
      Sucks or not, think of it as another detail to keep in mind as to how they keep PSN free.
- Aoshi00
  
  Yea, and XBL has demos for almost every game that exists, I really like to try the demo even for a d/lable game to see if I like it or not before getting the whole thing. I prefer the XBL demos as well because once you decide to buy it, it takes 1 sec to unlock the demo to become a full game, where as some PSN demos like Fat Princess, I had to d/l the full game again and the demo didn’t count, instead of letting you unlocking it..
  
  The Wii/DS demos are only up for a limited time too, and they are not even saved on your systems…
  - malek86
    
    Demos for XBLA games are mandatory. That’s one of the reasons why I prefer XBL. It’s not like I’m paying for it. As an added bonus, I can easily try a game on XBLA and then get the PSN version, if I so wish. Too bad it can’t be done with PSN exclusives, but most of those have a trial version. Not all, unfortunately.
    
    Wiiware/DS demos are ridiculous, but whatever. I hope Nintendo will have learned to make stuff differently when the 3DS comes out.
Yui

Whew! I’m glad you guys posted this. I was about to delete the demo yesterday, but something made me decide to leave it, and I’m glad I did now, thank God. XD
- malek86
  
  If you already downloaded it, it will always be available for you to get again form the downloaded list.
  - Yui
    
    Really? That’s pretty sweet, especially if it means we can download things that’ve been taken off the Store. Thanks for the info, man. :D
    - malek86
      
      Yes, for example, if you downloaded it when it was available four years ago, you would still have access to the crappy old GTHD Concept today.
      
      Only a handful of cases are exempt from this rule – I remember, when Flow was being given away for free as a special offer, you couldn’t re-download it for free if you had deleted it after the offer period was over.
      - Guest
        
        So I can still redownload the Japanese Resonance of Fate demo even though it’s pulled from PSN?
      - malek86
        
        If you downloaded it when it was available, yes. Just check your download history. It should still be there.
joesz

Don’t worry, Catherine and Katherine. I will get you both when the time comes.. and I’m going to put both boxes on each other so you could both make up.
Gabriel May

Eh not like I need the demo to convince me to purchase the game anyway. The trailers and news stories on the game have done an already good job on that :D
Yazuka

Glad I downloaded it. Now I just need to try it!
Kai2591

What is this i don’t even
Andrew

I wonder if they have to pay Sony/MS per download and are trying to keep that number down, or if this is just another trick to drum up some hype and excitement. I played the demo twice and it was enough to convince me to import it.
- malek86
  
  From what I know, companies have to pay Sony for the bandwidth used on PSN content (guess Sony has to make some money somewhere if they don’t charge users, mh?). I don’t think the same applies to Microsoft because users are paying for the service – or at least, I’ve never seen something disappear from XBL unless it was specifically stated earlier that it was limited in time.
  
  That would explain why the XBL demo is still there.
  - mooncalf
    
    Sony need to give us another us another way to get demos onto the PS3 if they insist on being so stingy with bandwidth. There are plenty of fan and ad driven websites that host pc demos and patches, let them host ps3 demos. Keep them packed up and only let the be unpacked and decrypted on the ps3 to preserve security. The general lack of demos on PS3 is bad enough, we don’t need the ones that do get released vanishing.
  - RyougaZell
    
    Or the XBL demo hasn’t reached the number of expected downloads yet…
    
    Before people think I’m bashing… we gotta remember that Sony has over 5million PS3 on Japan whereas Microsoft has only about 1million. Plus you can easily make a Japanese PSN account to download internationally whereas you need a Japanese Xbox to get the download internationally.
    
    I beleive us International PS3 users depleted the downloads for the Catherine Demo on Sony… whereas Microsoft may still have lots available.
    - malek86
      
      Actually I can just as easily get the 360 demo even on my european console. But that’s beside the point.
      
      The point is, why would they need a limit on the 360 downloads, if they don’t have to pay for the bandwidth? The only reason would be if they had to keep their coherence about it (eg. we said it was limited on PS3, so we have to make it limited on 360 too).
      - RyougaZell
        
        I stand corrected then.
      - Aoshi00
        
        Like malek86 said, you could do the same thing w/ a US 360 system to d/l from Jpn XBL. You could even get videos from the Jpn Zune (which just went up recently) while the video section of Jpn PSN is blocked from US users. For demos and videos are fine, but for the Games on Demand, those you need a Jpn 360 to play them.
  - M’iau M’iaut
    
    I understand this particular process, but it certainly gives strong evidence the consumer’s place in the digital world will be a bit different. Transference of ownership is an important part of making many sales and keeping a customer’s confidence in your company and product. Trample too much on that customer confidence and the only one that will end up harmed is you — someone else will step forward and give that customer what they require.
    
    The industry is being way too much bull in the china shop about the digital distribution rush. Bandwidth limitations remain the 800 pound gorilla and aren’t going away in the next year or even two. And in this case, we are talking about the servers and connections of Sony, not the smaller and more limited information pipes leading into peoples homes. Comcast and ATT will certainlytake issue if 10 million folks wish to download COD7 at the same time.
Darkrise

Phew, good thing I downloaded it day 1, would’ve been sad if I didn’t get to play it. Although I can’t say the same for my friends. 0.0
WildArms

MY LAST TEST IS THIS WENESDAY!!!!! ()$&”)/(#$&”/@@4&$#$%@!
Jorge Sta Maria

phewww……luckily ive got a copy ♥
Code

Glad I downloaded it when I did back when Siliconera had it’s “Let’s play Catherine Demo” thingy >ww<;
Kunio_kun

Lame…
Guest

Yes I still have it! It’ll be worth MILLIONS
PrinceHeir

well i already plan on buying the game so it’s all good :)
JustaGenericUser

Christ, Sony, what the hell is wrong with you?
cmurph666

They can keep the demo. Just get me the full game.
Juan Andrés Valencia

First rare and OOP demo ever?! :^/
Tropxe

Well since the entire marketing of this game is a pair of cartoon tits, it sounds like they wanted to give the actual gameplay as little exposure as possible. All the hype is based around a sexy anime woman, not around gameplay, story or anything else. I remember when the first gameplay videogame out and there was a kind of awkward silence, with the odd brave blogger pointing out that the gameplay actually looks kind of crap.
- malek86
  
  I’ll say that I didn’t like the gameplay too much, but then, I guess most people are buying it for the story and characters. I just wonder if you ever do anything aside from moving blocks, because if not, that would kinda suck.
  
  I should probably think of it as an adventure-centered game where you’re forced to pass some bad gameplay sections once in a while. A bit like Indy 3, you know what I mean?
Tokyo Guy

I totally missed this story. What an absurdly idiotic idea…The whole purpose of a demo is to generate interest in a product by offering a hands-on experience, and yet Atlus thinks it’s better to limit the demo to the core audience that was already going to buy it. Right.

Maybe it’s just me, but isn’t it logical that maybe people who are casually browsing the PSN at any given time might happen upon the demo and decide to download it, and then possibly like it and buy it?

Also, with respect to demos in general, I am of the mindset that in this day-and-age, every game should be required to have a demo. When you consider how much crap is out there and how much it costs (especially here in Japan where the average PS3 game is around $70) there is nothing more infuriating than getting something only to discover within minutes, that it’s right garbage. Before digital content was offered I could see the argument against this idea, but in 2011, Sony and Microsoft should be requiring it. (I’d say Nintendo as well but given the quality nature of 95% of the games on the Wii…)

Then again, I suppose it’s buyer-beware so I can equally understand why they wouldn’t want to do this.

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Sorry PS3 Owners, Atlus Pulled The Catherine Demo From PSN

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