For those commenting without actually reading the article(s), here’s one …
Many developers were informed about the new policy via an update to Sony’s developer portal. Our sources indicated they had not received any other communication about this change.
This new policy seems to be a mixed bag for all developers planning to release on PlayStation. On the one hand, larger publishers like Activision Blizzard, 2K Games, or Sony’s in-house studios will likely have the resources needed to create these time-limited game trials, and stand to benefit from PlayStation Plus Premium subscriptions.
I don’t think the game trials/demos will be too big of an issue for developers. They wouldn’t be working from an incomplete game, they’d be building a demo from an already finished game (presumably). It really wouldn’t be different than a day one update I don’t think. That said it is extra work to carve out a demo that would highlight your game’s strengths or try to create one for an already short game, extra work is money.
Technically this helps Game Pass because if a developer is going to be “forced” to expose their game on PS for free, even if it is only 2hrs, that makes the decision easier to put it on Game Pass IMO.
I don’t know that much about VRR but I’m guessing that this is a limitation console side as all of the Sony TVs that support HDMI forum VRR have a 4k minimum of 20.
You can almost guarantee that this idea came straight off the desk of a high level exec. who doesn’t work with developers/publishers.
Someone at some level down the chain closer to the real work will have told them it’s a bad idea but been ignored.
Can you really read this any other way than them using their dominant market position to force this requirement onto developers so that they can provide added value to PS+ premium offering?
If the value proposition from the exposure given to the game was half decent then they could have made this optional as it would have good take up anyway.
Several months back Playstation started to run timed trials on a small range of titles, I believe it launched with two titles (including Sackboy) and I haven’t heard of any more being added to the scheme. It was really badly implemented though, because while you were getting a 6-8 hour trial of the games the clock started from when you hit the download button. My internet isn’t stellar, so I literally couldn’t download the games fast enough to even use this feature. Hopefully this new version works a little better than that.
It just screams of Sony trying to add ‘value’ for free without giving publishers anything in return. They may argue that it gives them exposure, but if publishers wanted to do demos they would have done so, they do not need Sony telling them.
As far as we know, nothing. As I said, Sony may argue that it will increase sales, but if that is the case why put it behind a paywall? Plus, nothing stopped publishers from making demos before, but the vast majority do not bother and the reason is because in the majority of cases, especially well known titles, marketing and brand awareness does the job of getting people to buy your game.
Thats not quite what the original sourced article has said. It says if the devs what to have separate SKU for a demo that can work. Here is the exact wording directly from the original article:
There is some flexibility as part of Sony’s policy. Developers have up until three months after their games launch on the PlayStation Store to release their timed trial. Trials are also only required to be available to PlayStation Plus Premium users for at least 12 months.
Sony is also open to releasing custom game demos instead of time-limited game trials, but these will only be approved on a case-by-case basis. Developers are also still free to publish free weekends, game trials, or custom demos that can be accessed by all PlayStation owners.
Alright, just the way you mentioned it seemed like it could have simply been someone’s interpretation from the original article. It looks like this “AmericanTruckSongs8” person is a KOTAKU article writer. So still pinch of salt and all that, depending on your view of that site …
If this doesn’t create more work for devs/detract from the finished product, I don’t have a big problem with it. It rubbed me the wrong way to imagine Sony were swinging their weight around to mandate something that would kind of become mandatory for any potentially-qualifying game. (Well, we had better prepare a demo if we might ever get a deal to be on Spartacus because the first two hours of our game is just cutscenes/unskippable dialogue)
I still don’t love it to be honest, but if it’s beneficial to the consumer and isn’t an extra burden for devs, then I don’t really have an argument against it.
