Including the demo of a highly anticipated game with another game is not an especially unusual practice, but here it seems that it may have backfired. Codes for the Final Fantasy XV demo included with the recently released Final Fantasy Type-O HD have begun to appear on eBay on their own, and Square Enix has nothing to do with it.
The strange part here is how much some people are willing to pay for a demo that is ostensibly free, assuming you’re interested at all in the game it’s packed in with. Copies of the Final Fantasy XV Episode Duscae demo are routinely fetching prices of $35, siliconera points out. Final Fantasy Type-O HD, including the demo, retails for $60.
The motivation for sellers is easy to understand — they’re making more than half of the money spent on the original game back by selling the demo — but the motivation for buyers is somewhat harder to understand. While the play time will vary from person to person, it seems that most people are spending roughly three hours with the Final Fantasy XV demo. The full game it is packed in with, on the other hand, offers around 30 hours of gameplay for the main story.
Final Fantasy XV looks to be a major departure for the long-running series. Not only are core gameplay elements changing, but the game world is much larger as well. These changes are seeing mixed reception among fans, so this could be part of why these demo codes are being sold, as well as why they’re selling so well.
If you’d like a look at the Final Fantasy XV demo without buying it or Final Fantasy Type-O HD, we took a hands on look at it earlier this month that we’re happy to share with you, free of charge.