This whole thread I’m responding to the news with the best available information we have at the time.
So currently that is; every AAA release will allow this trial to happen or else
They don’t get a say or choice in the matter as this is being presented as an ultimatum.
The alternative as you say (a demo), means more effort on the developers behalf.
So you tell me - what have I missed?
I think the issue is more the use of exaggerated language like devs have a "gun to their head" on this; by that logic they had guns to their heads when achievements and trophies were being enforced, too. Could even argue they had "guns to their heads" when they needed to start incorporating online multiplayer in games due to growth of Xbox Live and PSN, as well.
I did say generally. Guardians may have been associated with games like Avengers and that game wasn't as well received. Game pass gave the game a new lease on life and I'm certain the devs were compensated. A win-win.
Well, what makes you think the developers won't be compensated with Sony's approach? I probably don't even need to say how these trails can be a buff to the attention of these games, and give them a boost if they need it.
Let me be clear no one is complaining about demos or trials as a concept but demos and trials that are forced on devs instead of it being voluntary. We also don't know if the devs will be paid to make those trials available. Personally I don't like the idea of paying for a trial or demo.
But PS+ Premium has a lot more for it than just the trails?
I am assuming Sony will put their trials on PS Premium, what we don't know is if those trials will be available day 1 for new releases or if they themselves will wait 3 months. I hope it's the former and not the latter. It will really show confidence in their proposal. If not the value decreases even further.
Yeah, the value would decrease if they did that, and could also make more 3P publishers hold off until months after to put out trails. Which would more or less defeat the purpose, hence why I'm almost 100% certain Sony's games will have trails present on Day 1 or potentially even earlier.
Seems MS had a good shipment for this quarter seeing their YoY change, but seeing themselves estimated that in the next quarter their hw sales will drop makes me think that their chips provider was able to send them a huge chunk for this quarter and then again will only have a few. Maybe next quarter they can't send to MS but send a huge chunk to Sony, or someone else like a car manufacturer, a dishwasher manufacturer or something like that.
Now having brought that up, I did hear some people speculate that MS having more units so far this year was down to having units from the holiday season in the distribution pipeline and that it's mainly been those and new Series X units selling.
I think that during a year or maybe a bit more with some exceptions Sony and MS will be able to ship a smal amount of consoles, which also will mean a lo of people will continue on PS4 until later than usual. But once they get rid of the chips issue then I think PS5 sales will explode and sell a fuckton because not only demand will continue there and many people will have money saved, but also because the number of exclusives and other great games plus improvements like the new PS+, VRR, Discord, PSVR2, PS5 tournaments and so on will be there making it more appealing than it is now.
Can agree with that; if you look at the software sales charts, whenever PS5 comes into good enough stock, many of the 1P games see big boosts in sales. We just saw that recently with HFW, it's been a regular thing with Miles Morales, and it will be a factor in helping keep GT7 in the Top 10/Top 20 for a very long time.
I think the things they are doing, as you mention, are adding value to the PS ecosystem in their own way which will help keep PS5 a highly coveted system once it is more readily available. Because that type of value is attached to quality that a lot of people are willing to wait for a very long time, once it's actually available, in order to then buy into it.
You also have to remember that Sony tries to produce both PS4 and PS5, plus pretty likely may be already slowly producing PSVR2 to have enough at launch, while MS is only producing Xbox Series (and well, both Sony and MS also have the cloud servers). Meaning that if both Sony and MS get 100 consoles each per day MS will use all 100 for Xbox Series while Sony should split them across the different devices.
Yeah, that's true, but that's also kind of where MS has an advantage in the production pipeline, wouldn't you agree? They only have to focus on Serie systems, Sony has to split production costs across three very different devices. Unfortunately it's 7nm chips that are in short supply and those are what PS5 needs, and PS5 on its own needs more supply to reach a decent saturation point of demand in comparison to the Series systems (for example if we could say Series have a 70% saturation of supply meeting demand, PS5 probably has closer to 50% saturation of supply meeting demand, maybe closer to 40%).
Again though, these approaches have tradeoffs. If there's an advantage to Sony's, it's that the diversity in product offering, particularly with PSVR2, is going to help create strong value perception within the brand, which will pay off once PS5 systems are more readily available.
Is it bespoke demos or a timer on the full game managed by the console?
I think people are confusing themselves here. There will be no seperate demo, and no extra code needed beyond putting in an api hook in at the most which will likely be default in the SDK by the sounds of things.
If there is no added work by devs and there is push back - it’s the devs being shady.
This needs to happen, and the platform holders are right to enforce it. However, free for all is the right thing to do.
It's already been clarified, too, that the PS Store team are handling the trails, so technically speaking 3P devs aren't burdened by that part of this.
I hope they offer a means of some of these trails being available for those on the lower tiers.
