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Sony has started communicating with developers about its plans for timed trials of games for PlayStation Plus Premium subscribers. According to sources speaking to Game Developer, developers working on games with a wholesale price of $34 or more (€33 in Europe, ￥4000 in Japan) are now required to create time-limited trial versions of their games. (To update: This number was previously referred to as the retail price, it has been updated to reflect that it refers to wholesale prices.)
These trial versions must be at least two hours long.
Games lower than these amounts are not required to create time-limited trials under the new policy. The plan follows Sony’s announcement of expanded PlayStation Plus subscription options.
Many developers were informed of the new policy via an update on Sony’s developer portal. Our sources indicated that they have not received any further communication regarding this change.
The good news is that these requirements are not retroactive and will not apply to upcoming PlayStation VR titles. The less good news is that as a developer planning a PlayStation Store release in the future, you must now allocate time and resources to create these new timed trials.
There is some flexibility as part of Sony’s policy. Developers have up to three months after the launch of their games on PlayStation Store to release their limited-time trial. Also, trial versions must only be available to PlayStation Plus Premium users for at least 12 months.
Sony is also open to releasing custom game demos instead of limited-time playtests, but these are only approved on a case-by-case basis. Developers are still free to release free weekends, trials, or custom demos that all PlayStation owners can access.
This new policy appears to be a mixed bag for all developers planning a release on PlayStation. On the one hand, larger publishers like Activision Blizzard, 2K Games or Sony’s in-house studios will likely have the resources to create these limited-time playtests and will benefit from PlayStation Plus Premium subscriptions.
On the other hand, if your game is just above the $34 wholesale price, you’re probably running with fewer resources than your competitors, and two hours can account for a significant portion of your game’s content. Savvy developers can use these trials as opportunities to attract new players, but without the promise of a payout at the end it could risk being a lot of work for a limited payout.
Game demos have seen somewhat of a resurgence in recent years, from “prologues” released on Steam to time-limited demos offered during events like the Summer Games Festival or Valve’s seasonal Steam Game Festivals. It’s interesting to see that Sony is reviving it as a tier for (relatively) high-quality subscribers.
Sony has not responded to our questions about its new policy as of publication. We’ll update our story when they get back to us.
Update 4/26: A previous version of this story said that this new policy applied to games that retail for $34. We’ve updated the article to clarify that the amount refers to the wholesale price of games submitted to PlayStation Store and reached out to Sony for more details on pricing.