As a promotional tool, are demos a smart investment for highly anticipated titles?

Having played computer games since I was 8 years old back in 1984, I’ve seen the use of marketing increasing with every year that passed since that day. In my opinion it all started with a single, simple, laughlingly idiotic way to sell games and it has become increasingly important. For some games the number of dollars spent on marketing games are even higher then the costs producing the game. And that is where it all went wrong.

 Gone are the days when I can tuck in for a 6-8 hour game session.  Now, gaming occurs after the kids are in bed, and only a few times per week so that other responsibilities aren't neglected - y'know,  the wife, the bills, etc.  I'm interested in what other gamer husbands/dads are doing.  Will I have to give up gaming altogether?, or maybe switch to family friendly Wii games that we all can share.

 Yesterday was a big day for Nintendo. While inevitably it was the DSi which took centre stage among the plethora of announcements what the company also put on show, less explicitly but equally importantly, was a shift in its marketing strategy.