As reported by Game Developer, Sony has reached out recently to PlayStation game developers with information about a new program that will bring timed game trials to PlayStation Plus Premium subscribers when it launches in most places in June. In the notice, Sony laid out a plan that detailed how game trials will work for upcoming releases.
Any game with a $34 wholesale price (not retail) will support this feature and have to let subscribers play for at least two hours before making a purchasing decision. Games under the $34 wholesale mark would not be required to support this feature, and the mandate isn’t retroactive for titles already on the PlayStation Store nor does it apply to PlayStation VR games.
The $34 wholesale price would mean that trials would be applicable to games that would sell a little above that, which means that this mainly applies to software at or just below the full $59.99 or $69.99 retail price. For example, Sifu wouldn’t have required a demo since it retails at $39.99, but Dying Light 2, a $59.99 title, would have.
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Sony stated in its documentation that it is open to custom demos rather than full game trials, although it will have to approve such releases on a case-by-case basis. Publishers and developers are also still free to set up other trial periods such as free weekends in order to promote their releases to everyone on the platform. There is some leeway with trials, too, as they come up to three months after launch. Trials also only have to be up for at least 12 months.
And even though there was concern about smaller teams with games just over that threshold being forced to allocate resources for trials, Kotaku Senior Reporter Ethan Gach claimed his sources said that the PlayStation Store team is handling the trials. However, some developers are reportedly worried about Sony not sharing money with developers after making their games support such a feature.
The news comes as part of the rollout of the expanded PlayStation Plus program, a subscription service meant to compete more directly with Microsoft’s expansive Game Pass offerings. A wide array of timed game trials is one way Sony hopes to stand apart from the Xbox offering, which focuses more on providing unlimited access to a subset of the storefront. Electronic Arts offers similar trials with its Access service, a consumer-friendly move that has nevertheless been a hindrance for games that don’t leave a good first impression.
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Game demos almost entirely went away for most of the previous generation. In recent years, they’ve found new life on PC thanks to the numerous “festival” events on Steam and free slices of games listed as “prologues” on the marketplace. With more and more game makers trying to reach out directly to players in any way they can, more demos in this style seem inevitable across all platforms.
