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Sony Patents Degradable Game Demos

Sho_Nuff82 said:
What's wrong with the system we have now?
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There's a problem with some multiplayer games. Some people are content to play one loadout on one map forever. EA, maybe concerned about this, thought it was a good idea to yank the Battlefield demo off the marketplace before I could play it :\
 
Zombie James said:
Demo downloads would get ridiculously huge, but I actually like the sound of this. We'd be able to play larger, more significant portions of games for a longer period of time before deciding whether or not to buy them, and slowly disabling or degrading features would be the incentive to buy.

Imagine a GTA demo where the entire map is opened up to explore, then after a week or something sections start getting closed off. I don't think this is stupid at all, especially if there's some sort of saving option where progress made in the demo can carry over to the retail/unlocked copy.
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i dont think it would be weeks - they have to be very careful, as some people might get enough of the game in that time... I would guess probably limited by the time you actually have played the game for... like full game for 2 hours or something.

thats still much better than stupid demos, with their old code and 5-20 minutes of gameplay.
 
I don't trust them to implement and maintain such a service. For six months they had PSP games in the trophy section of the store. Either they don't have enough eyes working on the network side of things or they just don't pay enough attention. I used to update my PS3 without a second guess. Now I hit up the boards before hand. Just make things faster and quite screwing it up with things that most PS fans don't really care for.
 
Great for me, to more proof if there will be subtitle in full retail. I hate that not many reviewers talk about it.

Something missing option features in the demo confuse me weather if it is in the retail or not.
 
Sounds cool. A lot of demos aren't really representative of the full games as is, so this a pretty interesting solution. Can't wait to see how they implement it.
 
Sounds interesting. On some occasions demos can be all a person needs out of a game. A buddy of mine and his son download a lot of demos but they have only purchased 1 thing off the PlayStation Store. Their reason is because everything they want to do is in the demo so they see no reason to buy the game. Just play the demo over and over. With this, they won't be able to live off the demo and will probably choose to pay for the full game to get the full experience or just suffer missing weapons, levels, or sound. It would be awesome if they held frames for hostage. "If you want your 30 locked frames per second back buy the full game or else enjoy the slide show."

Thats all I got.
 
liquidatedbrains said:
Operation Flashpoint from Bohemia Interactive did this.
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yeah, this is exactly what bohemia's fade system is. they're still using it with the arma games. so yeah, they've been using this new idea for 10 years.
 
Some of those examples sound idiotic. Make the weapon weaker and the player might think the game is too hard for him. Turn off graphical and sound effects and the product might come across as unpolished.
 
Joseph Merrick said:
yeah, this is exactly what bohemia's fade system is. they're still using it with the arma games. so yeah, they've been using this new idea for 10 years.
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Another victory for software patents. :lol
 
spwolf said:
This is what software industry has done for years, and it would be very beneficial to everyone.

a. you get the latest game code and full game to try. No months old demos here.
b. those games will be accessible on PSN then, and we need more full games on PSN!!!
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I completely agree.
 
tmarques said:
Some of those examples sound idiotic. Make the weapon weaker and the player might think the game is too hard for him. Turn off graphical and sound effects and the product might come across as unpolished.
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Nowhere in the Siliconera article does it mention that these changes will be silently piped into the game without any indication to the player. Of course, if Siliconera were good enough to link to the actual patent, we could find out if this were true or not, but alas.

I also mention once again that some companies have been doing this silently to pirates as a form of DRM for a while now.

EDIT: Found the patent; here's a link to it.

As the gamer loses functionality, the user may be prompted with the trigger metrics to purchase permission to continue the game in a non-demonstration mode that disables the trigger metrics and returns the game to the more complete version.
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Psychotext said:
Another victory for software patents. :lol
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actually, macrovision is the company that made that drm system. I thought it was bohemia, since it obviously wasn't codemasters when they went on to use it in arma
 
Don't see why people are complaining. It's like if a music company let you download a full album and you could listen to all the songs but every time you loaded up the album one of the songs was removed until only one was left. Then you would decide whether you liked the album enough to buy it in full.
 
You know, PC game demos that either have timelimits or only can be run a certain number of times are far from new... they've been around for many years. Even back in the DOS days some demos would stop working after you'd played them 25 times or something like that. So yeah, it's definitely annoying, but it's not really a new idea.
 
Magnus said:
It's like giving you a free hot dog, but then having Sony start to eat the other end as you begin eating from yours.

Fuck that.
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This will inevitably lead to an erotic, open-mouthed kiss in the middle.

It only does everyone.
 
On the surface, it seems fine.

However, how would it feel if every time I played the demo, I had a different experience?
 
SuperSonic1305 said:
Don't see why people are complaining. It's like if a music company let you download a full album and you could listen to all the songs but every time you loaded up the album one of the songs was removed until only one was left. Then you would decide whether you liked the album enough to buy it in full.
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but except for online titles like a battlefield game it's completely pointless though. it's just an overly complicated way to go about it. putting in a time limit isn't hard, these are closed systems anyway so there shouldn't be any way to fuck around with and circumvent that.

maybe sony just wants its own insanity effect patent
 
Dogenzaka said:
That made absolutely no sense.
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Neither do Pokemon games or their players. It always sucked when the funny pics thread would be going along just fine then someone would post pokemon comics and it's like..wtf?
 
seems like a good plan. basically get the whole game for free is a better demo than the current style in some ways. plus if you download it and like it it saves a step or two. wonder if this has anything to do with the expiration thing in the ps3 firmware that people thought was for rentals.
 
consoul said:
So you'll get to play a demo of what might be a good game that becomes less good the more you play it until it really sucks. Then you'll want to buy it apparently.

Am I reading this right?
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No.

Thetallywacker said:
I don't trust them to implement and maintain such a service. For six months they had PSP games in the trophy section of the store. Either they don't have enough eyes working on the network side of things or they just don't pay enough attention. I used to update my PS3 without a second guess. Now I hit up the boards before hand. Just make things faster and quite screwing it up with things that most PS fans don't really care for.
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Implement and maintain what 'service'? The 'service' of putting up downloadable keys for sale on PSN, for demos that are also on PSN? Somehow, I think they could manage this. :p

The only downside to this I see is that it would really increase the size of demos, since you'd be downloading the entire game. I'm guessing they'll only use something like this on selected titles. It doesn't seem like a bad idea, though. The rraaaaaage from some of you is a little much. :p
 
This has been done. It will make many gamers (who, like most other humans, are extremely stupid) to think that the game is broken and/or sucks because their mighty sword of slaying isn't slaying so mightily anymore. They might also think that the graphics suck or their console is broken.

It would have to be done in a very obvious manner, and even then it'd piss people off.
 
Neuromancer said:
Dude this idea sucks

Don't do it Sony

Don't you dare
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How does it suck any more than a demo that only gives you a single level to try?

Seriously, I want to know. I don't understand the reactions.
 
Tellaerin said:
How does it suck any more than a demo that only gives you a single level to try?

Seriously, I want to know. I don't understand the reactions.
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I can't understand the whining either.
 
Sounds good especially for racing games, you get to try out all the tracks a few times before each one get locked out. Same with cars, give it a few laps around nur, than a new car + spa before you eventually have nothing. Very smart.
 
This is like shareware. Except retarded.

Why can't developers just go back to the concept of Shareware nowadays? The internet has become the perfect distribution mechanism for shareware.

Trying the first 1/3rd to 1/5th of our game for free. Like it? buy it and see the rest.
 
It's a great idea in theory. I'm sick of all the 10-minute demos we get these days. :lol

Zaptruder said:
This is like shareware. Except retarded.

Why can't developers just go back to the concept of Shareware nowadays? The internet has become the perfect distribution mechanism for shareware.

Trying the first 1/3rd to 1/5th of our game for free. Like it? buy it and see the rest.
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That's really what demo versions should've evolved to - offering enough of the game to make an informed opinion.
 
So...basically it's like playing a game that was rushed to market? It starts out good, and then gets crappier the farther alone you play. How is this going to convince people to buy the game? :lol
 
BobTheFork said:
Wasn't there a DRM that did this for pirated PC games? I remember reading about it, but a looong time ago.
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You're thinking of TAGES. 2 games which are famous for their use of TAGES are Operation Flashpoint and The Witcher, both of which use TAGES and make things happen in-game to make it impossible to advance past a certain point if it detects you're using a pirated copy. The Witcher actually made NPCs disappear, which I'm sure baffled the shit out of people who couldn't complete quests with pirated versions. :lol
 
I coulda swore that demos have done this before, or at least it is an idea that has been tossed around for ages.
 
So this will take more time for the developers to code and test... can't see it happening much to be honest.
 
First game to have this applied to it? I'll take a shot, "Starhawk". It seems like a good test-bed for it if it's Warhawk 2.0.
 
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