Sony might bear the brunt of creating PlayStation Plus game trials for developers

[Cal Jeffrey]

Bottom line: To be more competitive with Game Pass, Sony is reportedly planning to require certain games to have limited trials, which it would offer to Premium PlayStation Plus subscribers. It's a reasonably decent idea from a sales and player perspective — a try-before-you-buy perk. But developers had — and continue to have — concerns about their bottom lines.

Earlier this week, Sony notified PlayStation developers that if they produce games costing more than $34, they would need to include a minimum two-hour trial. Sony intends to use these timed demos in its PlayStation Plus Premium tier to entice more customers to shell out at least $120 per year. These reports are unconfirmed.

On Thursday, an anonymous source with knowledge of the matter told Kotaku's Ethan Gach that the PlayStation Store team would be responsible for creating the trial timers. So developers can rest easy knowing that Sony is not piling extra work on them.

Source tells me PlayStation Store team will create the 2 hour timed trials for developers, so it shouldn't be extra work, though I've heard concerns from others about Sony monetizing a perk and not sharing that revenue with studios https://t.co/0fYZZSVQxq

— AmericanTruckSongs8 (@ethangach) April 27, 2022

However, some studios still seem worried about compensation. Gach says that other sources have told him that they are concerned that Sony will profit from their games via the subscription cost to access the trials and that they will not see a cut from that.

Sony has not commented or announced any information regarding the matter other than the notice sent from its developer portal. It remains to be seen whether it will share a sum based on no-sale trials or not. So it's too early to jump to any conclusions.

However, the fact that it only took a few days for an anonymous Sony rep to respond to concerns voiced via the media is a good sign that the company is paying attention to the situation. More likely than not, Sony will soon issue a definitive and official announcement precisely detailing its plans on the matter. After all, subscribers need to know about the perk eventually, and at that time, Sony will also likely inform developers what their part in it is.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/94394-sony-might-bear-brunt-creating-playstation-plus-game.html

 

[m4a4]

Good, it's the least they can do. Especially considering how much easier it is for them to setup the system through the OS.
Ridiculous that they would even consider putting the burden on the devs in the first place...

 

[terzaerian]

Developers that lay down with dogs wake up with fleas; more at 11

 

[Burty117]

Devs are concerned because a lot of modern games are rubbish these days and the vast majority have terrible marketing full of lies.

Wouldn't want a trial period now, otherwise everyone will know our game sucks.

 

[ZackL04]

The real problem is most games dont ramp up until the first few hours in.

Games may be designed differently to grab your attention now instead of this gradual build up.

Sucks for devs, gotta show their had right away if they want to keep you from clicking that refund button.

 

[Dd663]

The real problem is most games dont ramp up until the first few hours in.

Games may be designed differently to grab your attention now instead of this gradual build up.

Sucks for devs, gotta show their had right away if they want to keep you from clicking that refund button.

Because of Steam's two hour refund policy, you could say the pressure was already there, at least for PC games.

 

[NintPlayBox]

"Developers are concerned that Sony will profit from their games via the subscription cost to access the trials and that they will not see a cut from that."

I wouldn't put it pass Sony to do that.

 

[Puiu]

Oh boy, it would be so bad for devs if they had to make demos of their games. The players might not buy their games if they try them. The horror.

 

[bviktor]

Sony always HATED players and developers. Their system is horrible compared to Xbox. Yet they have the nerve to use slogans like "for the players".

They require a Plus subscription for even having cloud saves for your games, on Xbox that's free. They have stupid region locks all over the place, and make it even MORE confusing with DLC locks. They give you a PCI-E slot on the PS5, how nice, except they don't allow you to use PCI-E 3.0 SSDs, the system won't even boot. They don't allow you to use standard Bluetooth headsets (A2DP), they force you to buy their proprietary cr@p. They also removed the option to backup your saves to a USB drive, something that's always been possible on the PS4, once again forcing you to buy Plus. Oh and on the PS5 now you can only have one system with "Console Sharing", I.e. other users on the system won't be able to play your games anymore on other consoles where you logged in (I.e. friends' systems).

They just keep ruining the whole thing and they get away with it because they have too many good exclusives, and also a bunch of defensive fanboys with Stockholm syndrome. Me included to some degree. I just love TLOU too much I guess.

 

[Burty117]

Sony always HATED players and developers. Their system is horrible compared to Xbox. Yet they have the nerve to use slogans like "for the players".

Well to be fair to Sony, they actually have some games worth playing vs Xbox.

They require a Plus subscription for even having cloud saves for your games, on Xbox that's free.

That's fair, it's not like game saves are big either, Even Valve on Steam give cloud space for free for game saves.

They give you a PCI-E slot on the PS5, how nice, except they don't allow you to use PCI-E 3.0 SSDs

Sony have made that VERY clear from the start that it's only for PCI-E 4.0 SSD's and they have to hit a certain performance criteria. That's not Sony's fault you haven't read and understood the instructions.

They don't allow you to use standard Bluetooth headsets (A2DP), they force you to buy their proprietary cr@p.

Neither do Nintendo or Microsoft? What's your point?

They also removed the option to backup your saves to a USB drive, something that's always been possible on the PS4, once again forcing you to buy Plus.

Might have to try that out. I'm sure you can "move" your saves to an external drive at least, unsure if you can copy.

Oh and on the PS5 now you can only have one system with "Console Sharing", I.e. other users on the system won't be able to play your games anymore on other consoles where you logged in (I.e. friends' systems).

That sounds logical to me? Otherwise you'd login to say 5 different PS4's and just let 5 people play the same game at the same time but you've only purchased it once? Or have I got the wrong end of the stick?

They just keep ruining the whole thing and they get away with it because they have too many good exclusives, and also a bunch of defensive fanboys with Stockholm syndrome. Me included to some degree. I just love TLOU too much I guess.

This is true. I'm a PC gamer through and through but I got a PS5 and I've had all the PlayStation's for their exclusives, I was late on the PS3 bandwagon as I went Xbox 360 for that generation but Sony do have a solid first party dev line up.

 

[Dd663]

Neither do Nintendo or Microsoft? What's your point?

Actually...

Nintendo Support: How to Pair and Manage Bluetooth Audio Devices

en-americas-support.nintendo.com

 

[Burty117]

Actually...

Nintendo Support: How to Pair and Manage Bluetooth Audio Devices

en-americas-support.nintendo.com

Oh they did finally add it! Very recently though, it had been years without.

 

[Rdmetz]

Sony always HATED players and developers. Their system is horrible compared to Xbox. Yet they have the nerve to use slogans like "for the players".

They require a Plus subscription for even having cloud saves for your games, on Xbox that's free. They have stupid region locks all over the place, and make it even MORE confusing with DLC locks. They give you a PCI-E slot on the PS5, how nice, except they don't allow you to use PCI-E 3.0 SSDs, the system won't even boot. They don't allow you to use standard Bluetooth headsets (A2DP), they force you to buy their proprietary cr@p. They also removed the option to backup your saves to a USB drive, something that's always been possible on the PS4, once again forcing you to buy Plus. Oh and on the PS5 now you can only have one system with "Console Sharing", I.e. other users on the system won't be able to play your games anymore on other consoles where you logged in (I.e. friends' systems).

They just keep ruining the whole thing and they get away with it because they have too many good exclusives, and also a bunch of defensive fanboys with Stockholm syndrome. Me included to some degree. I just love TLOU too much I guess.

At least your somewhat aware of the abuse you've been taking just for that little hit of dopamine from their exclusives.

Most Sony fanboys think they are literally being treated like kings/queens.