Dammit Sony!

[outgum]

So hang on... i was just reading through this DS thing, and then came across this:

Sony appears to be working on a new kind of video game demo. A patent filed by SCEA details a system that gives users a full or nearly complete game to play with, but slowly removes features until you buy it.

The software has customizable triggers that disable features after a set number of plays or lapsed play time. Let’s see some theoretical examples of how this could work
In one scenario your weapon is weakened or replaced with a less powerful one after so many hours playing the game. Think of it as a timed level down.

I dont get it... a demo is there to have limited things? And each time they take more and more away?
What makes them think people would BUY demos if it degraded itself?

so in thoery it would eventually become nothing?

Pics and examples in source
Sourcey

 

[asdf]

I dont get it... a demo is there to have limited things? And each time they take more and more away?
What makes them think people would BUY demos if it degraded itself?

I don't think you understand. They give you the full game as a demo, but the demo starts to remove features until you buy the full game. You don't buy the demo. I think it's a pretty good idea.

 

[Joe88]

its better then getting some really disabled version imo anyway to begin with

 

[Deleted User]

People don't buy demos, yanno.

 

[geoflcl]

Hahaha, those dastardly guys at Sony. You have to admit, this is a pretty clever (albeit torturous) idea.

 

[syko5150]

lol but wouldnt that make the games more challenging if they take our weapons and make us weaker? sounds like MORE fun to me lol

 

[FencingFoxFTW]

kinda like those 30 day trial shareware

piracy kills them both

 

[anaxs]

atleast these demos wil be better than the ones that already have most features removed in the beginning

 

[DarkWay]

but if they give you the full game as a demo won't that make the demos themselves MASSIVE in terms of HDD space required for each demo

 

[Bladexdsl]

so whats stopping peeps from quickly completing the game, getting sick of it and not buying it? nice move sony

 

[Rydian]

but if they give you the full game as a demo won't that make the demos themselves MASSIVE in terms of HDD space required for each demoYes, unless they went with the only (only include 1-2 levels and no/little storyline) routine.
Or, maybe they intend to use this on consoles, a new type of demo disc?

QUOTE(Bladexdsl @ Mar 5 2010, 06:00 PM) so whats stopping peeps from quickly completing the game, getting sick of it and not buying it? nice move sony

Not having superhuman ability. If you give somebody the new Zelda game they're certainly not going to beat it and grow sick of it in 3 hours or so, for example.

 

[Porobu]

It sounds like more fun and more difficult

 

[Tomobobo]

so whats stopping peeps from quickly completing the game, getting sick of it and not buying it? nice move sony

Um nothing, and that's good.

Then you wouldn't have games that only lasted for a few hours, because developers would have to make products that were worth buying. It's the only fix to the broken video game market we have now.

I guarantee you wouldn't have an Assassin's Creed 2 if this system were already in place.

 

[RupeeClock]

Reminds me of the old Ridge Racer demo.

...Turned out that a simple AR cheat code would you play the full game for free!

 

[Bladexdsl]

so whats stopping peeps from quickly completing the game, getting sick of it and not buying it? nice move sony

Not having superhuman ability. If you give somebody the new Zelda game they're certainly not going to beat it and grow sick of it in 3 hours or so, for example.

yes but sony games are not like zelda games usually.

 

[DeltaBurnt]

I wouldn't mind this type of demo at all, sounds pretty cool too me. Heck it might even be a way to play through the game in a more challenging way.

 

[FAST6191]

I will echo the *points to shareware* thing others have mentioned.

On a different front have we not all seen the anti piracy methods that do the exact same thing often with the words demo in the blurb from the AP company?

 

[triassic911]

WTF?

Wouldn't it be EASIER to hack and possibly play the full game for free?

 

[Guild McCommunist]

WTF?

Wouldn't it be EASIER to hack and possibly play the full game for free?

Odds are this system would be for the PS3 and there's been nothing coming from PS3 hacking really. That exploit not too long ago will probably be fixed on the next update. Sony is a pretty sealed ship when it comes to anti-piracy. Sure, PSP pirating is easy to some extent, but it's still go road bumps (the new SOCOM 3 online thing, Kingdom Hearts and I think God Eater still not being cracked, etc).

As for the system itself... I don't know. If I wanted something to convince me to buy the game, I'd rather want to have a tasty sample of a few game levels in all their glory instead of a lackluster meal all the way through. Eventually you wouldn't be able to gauge how "awesome" a game is due to the degrading components compared to play a few levels of the full game with all the bells and whistles.

 

[p1ngpong]

but if they give you the full game as a demo won't that make the demos themselves MASSIVE in terms of HDD space required for each demo

This sounds more like the sort of thing they would use for download only PSN titles, which are considerably smaller then normal retail games. And if I recall correctly several PSN titles let you download the full game as a trial already, with features and levels locked out until you purchase the full game. Giving you the full game to begin with, and then progressively locking out features over time sounds like a pretty smart way to tempt people really. But on the downside it could also be used to severely restrict the amount of play people can get out of demos. For example after a couple of hours they could make it so that you will never be able to access any gameplay in that demo ever again without purchasing the full thing.