The claim that demos are proven to reduce sales lacks context. The Apogee shareware model was extremely successful in its day but was predicated on certain ass

The claim that demos are proven to reduce sales lacks context. The Apogee shareware model was extremely successful in its day but was predicated on certain assumptions about marketing and distribution that are no longer true. A standard scenario is that you'd read about the game in a magazine, play the demo episode on the accompanying disk, order the full version by fax or telephone and then have it within a few days. Games based on the Apogee model were designed from the ground up to demo well and hence monetize well.