Sony is testing out a new feature for PlayStation 5 users: game demos. Currently, in what appears to be a very limited trial phase for those in the UK, PlayStation is offering two game trials, which allows players to download a game and play a set amount of hours of a game for free. Right now, it only applies to Sackboy: A Big Adventure and Death Stranding: Director's Cut, with the former giving you five hours, and the latter lasting six hours. However, the clock doesn't start once you start playing, rather, the countdown begins the moment you add the game to your library and download it, meaning if you have a slow connection, it can severely cut into those limited hours you get to play.

Both demos are available to UK PlayStation 5 owners until October 28. Death Stranding: Director's Cut is 68GB, while Sackboy: A Big Adventure is 32GB. Should you purchase the game after your trial ends, your save data will usable with the full game, and trophies earned while playing the demo will be unlocked.

 

[ChaosEternal]

And once again Sony astounds with their novel ideas. Facetiousness aside, it is a welcome feature, even if it isn't innovative by any definition of the word.

 

[Chary]

Wow, demos! Finally, the PlayStation 5 is powerful enough for them! I can't believe it.

 

[DinohScene]

Oh Sony, I remember downloading demos on PS3.

 

[naed06]

Apparently the limited time starts from when you start the download of the trial game, so if you’ve got a 6hr trial but it takes 5hrs to download on your shitty broadband then you not got a lot of time left to trial it

Edit: should have read the first post fully instead of posting this first lol

 

[relauby]

The timer only applies to each PSN account, not console, so you can create a dummy account to download the game, then the timer will actually start for your primary account when you load the game up.

Still a ridiculous limitation that you shouldn't have to work around.

 

[CMDreamer]

Oh ok, so that was the "original content" they were talking about over here:

https://gbatemp.net/threads/sony-bu...y-will-be-working-on-original-content.600667/

LOL!

 

[CoolMe]

Why would anyone download these demos of games that are already out.. It would make much sense if they would start doing it for the new games instead, that are soon to be released, to give an idea what to expect from the game..

 

[Scarlet]

You know you're doing something wrong when Nintendo is doing something like this better than you. Who thought the timer starting with the download was a good idea?

 

[Kioku]

Once again.. Sony showing us all how tone deaf they are to the consumers. It's okay, though! THEY MAKE GREAT GAMES!!! Right? RIGHT????

 

[WG481]

Sucks for the people who can’t get a PS5 cause of scalping

 

[Moon164]

That's great, I've been wanting to try Sackboy for a long time, it's a shame this is for PS5 only.

Why would anyone download these demos of games that are already out.. It would make much sense if they would start doing it for the new games instead, that are soon to be released, to give an idea what to expect from the game..

I'm not sure but I remember that Sackboy didn't have as good sales (and to be honest the game looks amazing and fun), they probably did that to him to try and encourage more sales of the game.

 

[Spider_Man]

And once again Sony astounds with their novel ideas. Facetiousness aside, it is a welcome feature, even if it isn't innovative by any definition of the word.

So sony bring back demos that dont involve you to pre order the game to then get access to its demo aka you be the cannon fodder to provide the dev free QA and bug testing.

Wow, guess you cant please some people.

Tho, i wish devs would bring back game demos, rather than download an entire game.

Seeing how big games are these days, i mean craptivision couldnt even be arsed to include modern warfare game data on its disc and force yoh to download warzone that you dont even want, to then download the actual game you wanted to play in packs.

Ohh then its high resolution texture packs to take advantage of its "enhanced for ps4 pro" keeps deleting itself each time you boot warzone.

Unless they actually make demos, its not going to work later in the ps5 lifetime.

 

[the_randomizer]

Demos? I forgot those existed

 

[Deleted member 534570]

So, they're basically bringing back a feature that was done on other devices like the 3DS, PS3, and Xbox 360?

 

[Localhorst86]

*starts download*
*download finishes*

"We're sorry, the trial period expired 10 hour ago."

allright then, keep your secrets.

 

[Deleted member 568892]

If I could actually get a PS5 that would be a good start.

 

[raxadian]

Couldn't they just make demos instead?

 

[FAST6191]

Couldn't they just make demos instead?

Not really. The prevailing wisdom, and tests, generally indicate that demos reduce your sales compared to trailers, which is why timers, play counters and all this other jazz got introduced.
https://www.ign.com/articles/2013/02/11/jesse-schell-releasing-a-game-demo-can-cut-sales-in-half
I don't know what efficacy limited offerings get, and any further demographic or other groupings breakdown of the demo problem (see whales vs normal players in online wallet grabbers) but it seems straight demos might do more to harm things.

 

[raxadian]

Not really. The prevailing wisdom, and tests, generally indicate that demos reduce your sales compared to trailers, which is why timers, play counters and all this other jazz got introduced.
https://www.ign.com/articles/2013/02/11/jesse-schell-releasing-a-game-demo-can-cut-sales-in-half
I don't know what efficacy limited offerings get, and any further demographic or other groupings breakdown of the demo problem (see whales vs normal players in online wallet grabbers) but it seems straight demos might do more to harm things.

If your demos reduce your sales in half your game must be bad.

Remember the Doom shareware cut on sales because it already had like 80% of the game on it so people were not willing to pay to buy the rest. And also because it was so easy to edit many people took the assets from that shareware and made their own levels and even repackaged stuff in different games.

Unfortunately thinking like this is that leads to games like Sonic and the Secret Rings that looks amazing in a video but when you actually play it is just repetitive shit over and over and over again.

Edit: Also the stadistics are false, number of people trying a demo will never equal the number of people buying a game. Many people just try a demo because is free. If you have no demo people will either be stupid and buy it blind or delay buying until there are several reviews online.

With stuff like Cyberpunk "We released an Alpha as the full game", people are buying less and less on release unless they can get a refund.