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[Oldschoolgamer]

All I know, is that if I pay for a demo, it damned sure better not be time based.

 

[Cheeto]

Kutaragi also talks about the possibility of paying 100 yen (about $1) for a small or time-limited game demo.

Didn't Phil H. also talk about the possiblity of buying a GT shell, then buying the tracks and cars seperately? Then we saw where that went.

 

[Tieno]

From the GameSpot translated coverage of the event.



So who knows... doesn't sound like it's a proper announcement.

Spoiler

yet

Yeah, it was the same with the GT stuff

 

[Beer Monkey]

Is there a 'coin-operated' PS3 photoshop yet?

 

[Jim]

from ign:
this is different eh? pay to play kiosk?

This is what happens when you translate and liveblog on the fly...

 

[K_S]

I think worthplaying is confusing something Kutaragi was saying about possibly installing PS3s in retail locations like arcade kiosks and basically charging at those locations for game/demo downloads.

That makes more sense

I doubt that many publishers would agree on having people pay for demos on your own home console

That wouldn't make any sense

 

[The Innocent X]

Wtf? It's not 'free' after you pay, it's FREE. Xbox Marketplace is also available to Silver accounts and not only those who pay for online play. You don't pay a monthly fee for demos and other free content on Live, you pay for online play.

I`m sure MS uses some of the money from live subscriptions for the marketplace servers, so in effect live subscribers are subsidising non-subscribers. But in this model, you pay for the demo directly

 

[fse]

That makes more sense

I doubt that many publishers would agree on having people pay for demos on your own home console

That wouldn't make any sense

sounds like something nintendo would do.

 

[Mmmkay]

Yeah I think something may have been lost in translation. I recall it coming up during the GameSpot audio feed when they were talking about mobile phone interactions with the PS3. I certainly wouldn't put it past Sony to charge though, and Sony seems to have a habit of slipping out policy as 'theoretical debate'.

 

[Dracos]

From IGN:
"Sony is considering having the retail kiosks used as arcade-style units, so people can pay 100 yen or so to play a game."

I'm sorry but that is still stupid. The concept is the same, the location is different. If I go into Best Buy and have to pay to try a demo, then I'll go try a Wii or 360 demo. Thanks.

 

[antoniogaud]

Bandwidth is expensive... who is paying the bandwidth costs for PS3 downloads? Xbox Live covers that cost by charging for gold accounts which also cover silver accounts to some extent I would imagine. If Sony charges nothing, they will get REAMED with bandwidth charges.

 

[Speevy]

Promotional materials should be free if you're a consumer.

 

[plagiarize]

I think worthplaying is confusing something Kutaragi was saying about possibly installing PS3s in retail locations like arcade kiosks and basically charging at those locations for game/demo downloads.

still daft.

aren't kiosks meant to do just the same thing demos do, only win people over to the hardware as well?

 

[Kung Fu Jedi]

This is ridiculous if true. $1 doesn't sound like much, but there have been times when I've downloaded two or three in a week on Live. We'll see if it actually gets implemented, but if it does, well, hey! At least you can play on Sony's networf for free!

 

[plagiarize]

Bandwidth is expensive... who is paying the bandwidth costs for PS3 downloads? Xbox Live covers that cost by charging for gold accounts which also cover silver accounts to some extent I would imagine. If Sony charges nothing, they will get REAMED with bandwidth charges.

i think this is something that people have been saying to anyone that thought that the ps3 online would be equivalent to live, but free.

sane people have known that sony were going to cover their costs somewhere (even if this way turns out to be false) all along.

 

[Jim]

What Eurogamer had to say about it, in their liveblog:

PS3 units will be installed in many retail and other environments - he's talking about the option of using mobile phone micropayments to use them for arcade style titles and billing systems. Sounds more relevant to the Japanese market, where the arcades are massive business, than to anywhere else...

There is NO WAY ON EARTH that Sony is charging people to play game demos at retail. How would you even do this? Insert your credit card into the BluRay slot? This is most likely for home downloads.

 

[antoniogaud]

There is NO WAY ON EARTH that Sony is charging people to play game demos at retail. How would you even do this? Insert your credit card into the BluRay slot? This is most likely for home downloads.

 

[gofreak]

Bandwidth is expensive... who is paying the bandwidth costs for PS3 downloads? Xbox Live covers that cost by charging for gold accounts which also cover silver accounts to some extent I would imagine. If Sony charges nothing, they will get REAMED with bandwidth charges.

PC demos are made available freely.

I would expect PS3 demos will be free, at least in the West certainly.

I wouldn't give too much credit to some of Kutaragi's remarks at the keynote - stuff like the PC Engine/Genesis downloads, the economics etc. sounded like off-the-cuff stuff, him thinking out loud, rather than confirmed plans for PS3 Online.

 

[Kolgar]

from ign:


this is different eh? pay to play kiosk?

:lol

 

[mckmas8808]

What Eurogamer had to say about it, in their liveblog:

Thanks Jim.

You da man!

 

[K_S]

So when will Sony have a conference where they tell how everything works? :lol

 

[Scotch]

And here I thought Microsoft were greedy bastards. If Sony goes through with this and MS follows suit I'll go back to PC gaming only. I hate next-gen.

Oh, false alarm. Pfew. Still hate next-gen.

 

[antoniogaud]

I thought Luke said something about a 3-hour event happening last night?

So far TGS has revealed a lot of great game footage, but aside the Japan price cut, no real news which is sort of disappointing.

Sony needs to explain online strategy fast - especially if they are charging for downloads.

 

[Acosta]

I tolerate microtransactions as a valid way to get needed extra revenue (always from the point of view that they are not necesary and you can go without them without problem). But this looks too stupid to be true, demos are used for showing the game and help the consumer decide if he wants to pay for it; people won´t pay for a demo and, what is worse, a good way to show a game will become useless.

Hope is just an idea and nothing more.

 

[The Innocent X]

So when will Sony have a conference where they tell how everything works? :lol

October is the new TGS, apparently. Some unamed conference in October

 

[Flo_Evans]

the bandwith is such a non issue, just make them like torrents. done.

 

[RumFore]

Pay for Demo's? Pay to play a Kiosk? I think we may soon need to setup a paypal account so we can donate to Sony if its that bad.

 

[mckmas8808]

Pay for Demo's? Pay to play a Kiosk? I think we may soon need to setup a paypal account so we can donate to Sony if its that bad.

False alarm chief.

 

[BenjaminBirdie]

October is the new TGS, apparently. Some unamed conference in October

Until I hear about it from MassiveAttack, it doesn't exist.

 

[Arsenal]

They give away XBLA games?

That was a one time deal for Texas Holdem. It was originally supposed to be a free, advertising supported game (and was announced as such) but their sponsor fell through. In order to avoid the backlash, they offered free downloads for the first 48 hours.

 

[Kintaro]

Bandwidth is expensive... who is paying the bandwidth costs for PS3 downloads? Xbox Live covers that cost by charging for gold accounts which also cover silver accounts to some extent I would imagine. If Sony charges nothing, they will get REAMED with bandwidth charges.

This is not our problem. Charge for demos, and people will not play your demos. Then they probably won't bother with the game since they didn't play the demo remembering "Oh yeah, they tried to charge me for that shit." then wait for the price drop.

Saint's Row demo was downloaded 200-300k times? That number would undoubtably been slashed to hell if they charged for said demo. Sales probably would have suffered as well.

 

[antoniogaud]

False alarm chief.

Is it?

 

[OverHeat]

 

[Semjaza Azazel]

The someone that has to "pay for that bandwidth" is the company putting out the demo. To have this put on the consumer is a terrible idea and not something I would hope any person would support.

I think this is a separate idea from general microtransactions. It's akin to making me pay to try on clothing at the store before I was sure if I wanted to buy it.

 

[Ghost]

Its nice that Sony and MS are thinking up different ways to rape our wallets, it wouldnt be nearly as much fun if they both raped us in the same holes.

 

[Zonar]

Except demoes and DLC are also available to Xbox Live Silver accounts, aka the free ones.

bolded for truth

 

[The_Rebel]

To be honest I've been waiting for this to happen on X360 as well. Eventually we'll see companies sure enough of their games that they'll want actual money (or Marketplace points) for their demos. I expected EA to be the first, though.

ahuh.. I'm sure Dev's will want 1 dollars worth of MS points so they can make a ton of money selling demo's on XBL (smart thinking there)

why would they do that? all it does is handicap its main purpose of getting the games exposed to the public and get good release hype so they can sell sell sell.

 

[bud]

So what happened to that 3 hour long conference that was supposed to take place?:lol

 

[StRaNgE]

if anyone pays they should just fall over dead on the spot. the masses need to be thinned out anyway. Moooo!

 

[Rody]

Is this confirmed or what?

 

[soul creator]

They've got a lot of bandwidth to cover, since one level in a game like Lair takes up like 4GB, so demo's are gonna be pretty huge. This makes sense to me.

btw, my post is not serious at all.

 

[ElectricBlue187]

outrageous, i'm not paying a red cent for a demo

 

[bud]

False alarm chief.

Easy there son, we still love the ps3.

 

[TheJollyCorner]

cheaper than buying OPM

 

[open_mouth_]

Sony: "We'll provide online for free!"

*checks pockets*

*wallets gone*

 

[iapetus]

why would they do that? all it does is handicap its main purpose of getting the games exposed to the public and get good release hype so they can sell sell sell.

For games that they expect to sell in huge numbers anyway, and knowing that can use the demos to make extra profit elsewhere? To get extra revenue from games by charging for an early release version of the demo, then making it free later? Just because you can't think of reasons they wouldn't do it doesn't mean it's not possible (or even, from their point of view, desireable). It's not exactly rocket science - companies like Konami and Square have done this sort of thing before by packing the demos for big games in with games they don't expect to sell as well on their own merits - how many people do you think bought ZOE just for the MGS2 demo, for example? The number of pre-owned copies of ZOE with the demo disc missing that appeared in game shops should answer that one...

As I said, I'd have expected EA to be the first company to do this - Madden seems like a prime candidate, doesn't it? Hell, they managed to persuade people to pay money to watch adverts for Madden. $20 for a one-hour advert. And you think people wouldn't pay for a demo? What are you smoking?

 

[The Faceless Master]

i mean thats what happens when people buy themes and wallpapers...

companies get this crazy idea that people will pay for anything!

if you want to make it stop, then STOP MICROTRANSACTING

 

[Beer Monkey]

i mean thats what happens when people buy themes and wallpapers...

companies get this crazy idea that people will pay for anything!

if you want to make it stop, then STOP MICROTRANSACTING

Since this is a NEW revenue stream, no boycott is going to work. This is revenue where none existed before.

 

[OverHeat]

i mean thats what happens when people buy themes and wallpapers...

companies get this crazy idea that people will pay for anything!

if you want to make it stop, then STOP MICROTRANSACTING

Im so part of the problem.....almost 400$ of Microsoft points already

 

[iapetus]

Im so part of the problem.....almost 400$ of Microsoft points already

As long as you exchange them for stuff of actual value, that's fine. I've bought plenty of XBLA games. But hell will freeze over before I pay for a gamer picture, even if I was sorely tempted by one of the Penny Arcade packs. But I will be strong.