One of the benefits of the new PS Plus Premium membership is that players will have access to time-limited game trials. According to rumors from yesterday, developers have been told that any PlayStation Plus Premium game with value of $34 or more will have to produce a timed game trial. However, it seems that this requirement will not be imposed upon the developers, apparently being the responsibility of the PlayStation Store team instead.
Which games will get timed trials?
Sony’s developer portal said PS Plus Premium time-limited game trials would be a mandatory requirement for all games with a wholesale value of $34 or more. Apparently PlayStation VR games will be excluded from the policy and it isn’t retroactive, but those with games in development will need to bear this requirement in mind for the future. The trials must be available three months after the game has been released too.
According to Kotaku reporter Ethan Gach, the PlayStation Store team will be responsible for creating the demos so there won’t be any extra work directed towards game developers. While the policy won’t mean extra work for a game’s developer, several have voiced concerns that the demos are being paywalled behind Sony’s most expensive Playstation Plus tier. There are also concerns that the revenue generated from this perk won’t be shared with any of the studios, although some argue those who enjoy the demo will be more likely to purchase the game afterwards. As the program is still in its early days, it will be interesting to see how it pans out over the coming months.
In other news, players who have had problems redeeming PS Plus codes over the last couple of days may not be able to do so until the new PS Plus tiers role out in June. Apparently Sony has blocked those with a current membership from stacking any more time onto their membership according to Playstation support. Elsewhere, the Playstation game preservation team is focused on archival efforts rather than PS3 emulation.
