What's the deal with demos these days - none prior to game release?

Just realized with a slew of new games coming out, very few ever have any demos released prior to the game release. It was usually a good teaser to get you pumped for the final release.

We have coming out within a month or so, with no demos yet:

- Turok
- Sins of a Solar Empire
- Conflict Denied Ops (new Demo, yay!)
- Frontlines: Fuel of War
- Rainbow Six Vegas 2
- Assassin's Creed
- Far Cry 2

 

Turok, still in beta, the engine isn't optimised nor even close to done.
Assasin's creed, im assuming the same, not optimised yet, which is why it isnt released yet.
Far cry 2, no where NEAR done.. Engine also needs a TON of optimization from what I can see.

It's not like older games, most of these dont use a standard already complete game engine, and need to be worked on still. If they pushed out a demo now with an unoptimized engine, everyone will ***** that the game runs like crap and will suck.. it's in the good of the company to keep the game under wraps til it's ready, and I personally think it's a good idea as well.

 

Well, if there's a solid release date, then usually the code is more than well done to run a beta, even if some of the details aren't worked out. If its in beta, then usually its good enough for a demo.

 

fuel of war is in beta release, but you need beta key.