Shocking news: Sony is as bad at communicating with business partners as it is consumers. At least that seems to be the case! Earlier this week, an update to the PlayStation Developer Portal – a kind of official forum for partners – revealed that going forward, it will require all games with a wholesale price of $ 34 or higher to include a two-hour trial for PS Plus Premium members to play.
This is one of the benefits of Sony’s new subscription level, as announced earlier this year, though we’re just starting to be told how it all works. There was some confusion surrounding the original reporting, shared by Game Developer, which suggested that the studios might need to create demos manually. We questioned that when the news first broke out, assuming players would simply download the entire game and be limited to two hours of gameplay. This is how it works EA Play current ten-hour trials, for example, and that seems to be the case here.
The demos, according to reports, should be available within three months of the game’s release date – and should be delivered for one year. Again, all of this is mandatory, with the exception of PSVR game. Publishers can also create custom demos if they prefer, but this obviously requires additional resources.
The problem, according to further reports from Kotaku, is that none of this has been properly communicated out yet, and developers and publishers are a little upset that they are apparently being required to deliver two hours of their titles to Sony without any compensation. Here’s the rubbish: PlayStation can sell its expensive subscription level of £ 99.99 / $ 119.99 with this added benefit – but publishers, as we understand it, will not see a cent of that money.
PS Plus Premium, it must be emphasized, will launch around fire weeks in parts of Asia and a little more in the US. How is this information only just being shared with partners confuses us!
Of course, this is all potentially good news for us! As consumers, it sounds great to have the opportunity to try just about any game with a wholesale price of over $ 34 for two hours with no limit or limitation. But since there is an argument that demos can actually reduce sales, we understand why some publishers and developers would not be happy about it. Either way, it all sounds like another example of Sony’s troublesome communication.