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Sony Patents Degradable Game Demos
- Thread starter Nirolak
- Start date
EYEL1NER
Member
Sounds dumb imo. But some people will be all over it, so whatever.
It's not something that will I think I will jump on.
EDIT: And I'm not complaining that it's a horrible idea or raging against Sony. I just see no point and don't think it will be implemented in a way that I would like. I am content with demos the way they are now.
Pretty much the only reason I download a demo is becuase I plan on getting the game and want to play a bit of it early. Occasionaly I dl a demo for something I am unsure about, but not too often. And when that does happen, like with Arkham Asylum and I enjoy it, I'll go out and pick up the game.
It's not something that will I think I will jump on.
EDIT: And I'm not complaining that it's a horrible idea or raging against Sony. I just see no point and don't think it will be implemented in a way that I would like. I am content with demos the way they are now.
Pretty much the only reason I download a demo is becuase I plan on getting the game and want to play a bit of it early. Occasionaly I dl a demo for something I am unsure about, but not too often. And when that does happen, like with Arkham Asylum and I enjoy it, I'll go out and pick up the game.
consoul said:
Perhaps. However, if you know it will degrade and then hold that against the game as a reason not to buy it, because in later levels it looks/plays like garbage, perhaps you should not be playing any games at all and, instead, spend time with activities that teach comprehension.
EDIT: And, actually, this reminds me a lot of the DiVX DVD purchase/locked systems from the late 1990's....
EYEL1NER said:
I play virtually every demo for every game. I never know when I might stumble onto a gem, and it has happened a number of times, particularly with PSN games.
I like DangerousDaves example above. You get to try every track one time, and one track unlimited like a traditional demo. Then you have to buy the game.
Much better than only playing one preselected track that may or may not be representative of the whole game.
Biff
Member
smh at some of these replies..
Firstly they are obviously talking about 1-2GB PSN games, not 20GB Bluray games. We already have many examples where you download a 1.3GB 'demo', then buy a 30KB unlock code from the PS Store to upgrade the demo to a full version, so it's not like they're reinventing the wheel here.
In this case, instead of the demo letting you only play 1 level, or only play 5 minutes, you get to play for longer except the colours gradually fade or your character gets weaker and weaker or something. So it's like you get the 5 minutes you would have gotten anyway, but then extra time beyond that with a degraded version.
I think it's a refreshing idea and can't seriously see one 'FUCK YOU SONY' thing about it...
Firstly they are obviously talking about 1-2GB PSN games, not 20GB Bluray games. We already have many examples where you download a 1.3GB 'demo', then buy a 30KB unlock code from the PS Store to upgrade the demo to a full version, so it's not like they're reinventing the wheel here.
In this case, instead of the demo letting you only play 1 level, or only play 5 minutes, you get to play for longer except the colours gradually fade or your character gets weaker and weaker or something. So it's like you get the 5 minutes you would have gotten anyway, but then extra time beyond that with a degraded version.
I think it's a refreshing idea and can't seriously see one 'FUCK YOU SONY' thing about it...
CamHostage
Member
ChefRamsay said:
Well, the idea itself is not that innovative or interesting, and it technically is a sales trick rather than an improvement to gaming, so I guess I see why people are icking at it. The sample idea Sony offers where your sword becomes so weak that you can't continue, however, is pretty clever.
The bottom line, though, is that patents are a flawed system, and so Sony has to patent it just like Nintendo had to patent their "helper" technology. Both companies have learned the hard way that if they don't do the patent, somebody else will...
CamHostage said:
Who said it's an improvement to gaming? It is a convenience thing. You no longer have a crippled demo fro the onset and you get to start with the full experience straight out of the gate. Gameplay and such suffer the longer you play it as a demo and all is made right when you pay for the full game and continue to play.
So, it's not that innovative (although no other company is doing this) or interesting but you find the degrading power of the sword so that you can't continue to progress, until you pay for the full game, to be pretty clever.
Which is it, pretty clever or not innovative and interesting?
Zombie James
Banned
Vinci said:
Engadget was weird about it...
How is a bigger demo insulting?
Zombie James said:
Engadget being weird or stupid doesn't alter the fact that there's nothing inherently insidious or bad about this idea. I mean, people are seriously annoyed that they'd get to try out a feature-complete title for nothing that provides gradual incentives for you to purchase the product?
I don't get the ire.
Air Zombie Meat
Member
The thing is while this could be nice for consumers, I can't see publishers\devs wanting to do it. Nowadays, we're lucky to get a demo and if we do it's usually tiny. I just can't imagine them suddenly wanting to open the whole game up to non-buyers, even in a limited capacity. Plus, retailers wouldn't be happy as it could cut them out of the picture.
It's like the idea of selling and trading digitally distributed games. Would be great for the consumer, not so much for the people actually making and selling the games.
It's like the idea of selling and trading digitally distributed games. Would be great for the consumer, not so much for the people actually making and selling the games.
This would seem to me to be Sony giving out discs or downloads for people to pirate. If Ubisoft's 'always on' DRM could be cracked in a day, wouldn't this be just as easily cracked?
I don't have a problem with the way the demo releases and game enthusiast reviews are now. This new method of distribution doesn't seem necessary to me.
I don't have a problem with the way the demo releases and game enthusiast reviews are now. This new method of distribution doesn't seem necessary to me.
Vinci said:
The Gamasutra article explains the psychology well.
Many people instinctively prefer receiving a little, verus receiving a lot with the prospect of that lot being chipped away over time. Even though rationally the latter might yield a greater gain in the heel of the hunt.
Anyway, there's a couple of obstacles to implementation - for example, would degradation triggers be easy to implement? And the download size question. But for some games, for sure, I could see it working really well.
As for the other question, patentability, I've no idea. The patent office seems to let all kinds of stuff through. Although the Gamasutra article hardly counts as prior art (unless Sony used their time-bending powers to go back to 2008, when this patent was filed). I'm sure there could well be plenty of other prior art however...
MedHead said:
For now, piracy ain't a issue on PS3. But yeah, I can see the dependency on it remaining a non-issue for this to work.
Air Zombie Meat said:
Actually you have to think of it in a different way. Its like the $10 project from EA, but made into a $60 project for all games.
That way some stuff is always unlocked for everyone, but only those who pay officially to the publisher get access to the full game.
It will prevent trading because everyone can download the whole thing, but the only way to access all of it is by paying the full price.
So its actually good for consumers because they get bigger demos, and good for publishers because everything is PSN authorized so it cannot be traded away.
InterMoniker
Member
Talk about jumping to conclusions. You think gamestop is going to sell you a game for $5 that has to be unlocked? :lolrhino4evr said:
This would be over PSN
Lots of morons in this thread.
Freeza Under The Shower
Member
Haunted said:
It's not that different from XBLA trail games.
But is not without risks: after all, Shadow Complex had that bug in it that allowed players to keep on playing after the normal 'cut off point'.
And it makes making demos a heck of a lot easier, depending on the exact implementation.
Joe Shlabotnik
Banned
A Black Falcon said:
Yeah. I feel like I'm missing something here. I have no problem with time-limited demos, so if a developer wants to restrict the amount of time played on a full game, why wouldn't they just... disable access after the time expires? Why is it better for the game to slowly rot away like it has gangrene?
The point at which the dev starts taking away features would seem to be the point at which the dev wants the player to just buy the damn game, so why not just turn it off completely?
Rapping Granny
Banned
hmmm sounds like one of the paid PSN features they had in that survey. dun dun dun.
Air Zombie Meat
Member
InterMoniker said:
From the article in the OP:
PSN games come on physical media? Try reading the article people are discussing.
InterMoniker said:
Indeed.
Rapping Granny said:
Yep.
Imagine your PSN game comes with 5 invite codes. You can send those to a friend as "large demo" of the whole game with triggers as described in the patent. So they can get the traditional demo and play one track of Wipeout, or get a friend invite and play all tracks 1-2 times each, or allows full play for 30-60 minutes. Then they can buy if they want to keep for good.
I can see this with something like Fat Princes. I buy the game. I send invite to a friend, he downloads it, we play together for an hour with no restrictions, he is hooked and buys the game too so we can keep playing.
It adds to the importance of friendships, it allows you to expose your friends to games you like and ultimately makes them more likely to buy.
The coolest thing would be a reward to the sender. Say $1 in PSN credit for every sale resulting from an invite you send out. That's a great incentive because you can potentially make $5 back in credit if you convince all 5 invite friends to buy it.
Dr. Zoidberg
Member
I was hoping this would be about demos that delete themselves after so long. I know a LOT of hardcore gamers have a sad problem with demos where they will DL them, play through, and if they like it they will keep it for months or forever, regardless of whether they ever play it again. They have gigs and gigs of demos that they never play after the first few times, but they just can't bear to delete. I'd like the demos to self delete so these people could have some help getting over their hoarding complex. I suppose this might have a similar effect but since the demos don't delete themselves, they'll just hoard a bunch of useless demos whose features have wasted away and they'll never know it.
I'd be perfectly fine with this degradable demo except for all the stuff about "softening sound effects, changing color depth, and/or brightness as other ways to encourage players to purchase a full version." This would only make me think there was something wrong with the game, and I'd probably assume it to be a bug-ridden piece of heck.