Sony Obtains Patent for Degradable Demos
When talk of a PSP Phone was recently revived, we were ecstatic. In fact, one of our editors leaped from his chair, stripped, and ran outside in his underwear shouting incoherent sounds of pure joy. His actions were a physical representation of how we feel when plans for a promising future Sony product come to light. However, we can’t help but have mixed feelings about their latest idea to pass through the US Patent Office.
Times are tough. It doesn’t take an econ major to see that the economy hasn’t exactly bounced back up. And to make matters worse, Sony has been making it rain with a magnitude of titles that, if games were allowed to compete, would undoubtedly win a few Olympic golds.
While those with disposible income to spare enjoy the most sought after games in recent history, the rest of us still have some recourse–we download the demos. That’s right–demos. You see, not only do they provide us with a substantial portion of the experience you would find in the retail game, but they do it an unlimited amount of times, and for free. That is why we love demos, and precisely why Sony hates them.
Sony’s latest creation comes in the form of “feature eroding video game demonstration software.” Basically, certain aspects of a demo degrade the more you play it. Say whaa?! Here, let us show you.
Hey, who ate my sword!?
The character in the picture above, who we can’t help but notice bears a striking resemblance to Kratos, has a full blown light saber sword ready to kick ass and take names. However, after four hours have passed, the sword mysteriously shrinks. That, friends, is the future.
The patent goes on to detail numerous possible implementations of this technology, including race tracks, vehicles, characters, and even “play sounds, haptic responses, brightness, intensity or color of visualization of game play” that become inaccessible to the player over time. Nothing is off limits. However, Sony will gladly give you these features back once a license is purchased for the full game, something not unlike a full game unlock we have already seen in action on many of the demos currently available in the PlayStation Store.
While we applaud Sony for this admirable display of innovation, we’re not exactly fond of the idea of being constantly reminded of our frugality every time we fire up a demo…for the 12th time this week.
14 Responses to “Sony Obtains Patent for Degradable Demos”
that is pretty dumb. l know demos aren’t the final product but it at least gives a general idea of the game. How are we supposed to gain interest if they intentionally flaw the game & its featuresin the demo.
At first I thought that this was an okay move by Sony, because you really shouldn’t just play the demo for 10 hours and not buy the game. But I’ve essentially already done that with the new Just Cause 2 demo. I’ve played it at least 5 times, amounting to about 2.5 hours.
I haven’t bought the game because (it isn’t out yet and) I don’t think its worth $60. Its fun to use the grappling hook and destroy anything I want, but the cinematics are god awful, the flying helicopters and planes is awful and some of the AI is awful. The idea is cool and could have worked, but the only thing thats fun is the freeroam/driving/hookshot combo (for me). So if this was implemented into that game I would be pretty pissed.
To be honest they should have a time limit on them then after the time is up then either a rent or to purchase the demo for like 3 dollars or something like that
it could encourage the difficulty of the demo. I don’t like having timed demo’s, those seem more offensive to me.
Seems like a pretty dumb idea to me. I mean, how many people are going to keep playing a demo after their sword gets shorter, or their race car gets slower? Maybe 5? And it’s going to take the developers a lot of man hours to program all this junk. It would seem to make a lot more sense to just have a “This demo has expired” screen come up after a certain amount of time.
@ JackC8, i think u’r right. yeah.. not much more to say ’bout that.
@ Foxy007, thats dumb. real dumb. that was dumb when u thought it up, even dumber to actually type it. u even thought it was dumb when you reread what you wrote, but you still hit the submit button. dumb.
And finally @ Sr. Garcia- I think this patent is actually a step Sony made for their planed, or at least rumored, “subscription service”. Imagine, as being a subscriber, being able to dload the God of War demo with all weapons/magic already unlocked at a cool, but not pivatol juncture in the game. Then as your timed limit with the demo, which I assume will be a standardized thing for all of these demos they make available, counts down- you start to lose certain abilites or certain sections of the environment become closed off. Even the music would get cut off, which btw & imo would really be a cool way to appreciate all the sound design that goes into a game. But who knows, I could be wrong.
Except about Foxy007, I’m not wrong about that one.
hello …
humm, if the demos would be something really out of the final product then i would agree with a time limit or degradation. demos are mostly a chunk of the final game but with more bugs & not the finishing touch, well ‘mostly’.
i don’t do replays, whether it be a demo or a full game, unless i really need to (i played the God of War 3 demo only once when it was available only with that code) …so don’t really care, but i didn’t really get a good grip of BFBC2 & on the day before it would expire i played it for 3 hours & after that felt like wasn’t enough & wanted to buy the game (will do so later, have too much games to catch up with & too many coming out this month)
so i think it will work for SONY, but too bad for gamers, yet if someone really like a demo, it’s better to go for the final product & if the demo has nothing to do with the main story it will be great to have it unlock @ purchase then we know we did right downloading a timed demo & buying the game, would feel like a free DLC or something that came before the game.
cheers!
what next? trophies on demos?
Well… I dunno. Its rare for me to download a demo and play it more than once – although lately with the multiplayer demos it has happened (uncharted 2, BFBC2). Within a multiplayer demo this would be retarded, since your player would become unbalanced VS everyone else, and the experience would then suck. If you’re trying to sell games you never want to make a player experience something that sucks. Also, in any multiplayer demo, you usually have only one map, limited weapons, one game mode, etc on the limitations, such that you’re going to get sick of it pretty quick – are there really enough people out there that don’t get sick of them that sony feels they need “degradable demos”? If there are, they’re still not going to buy the game. Multiplayer demos are on a time limit as is anyway, no one is going to host those servers forever. Demos are supposed to be a preview that entices the consumer – not discourages them.
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@BigWoopMagazine – “If you’re trying to sell games you never want to make a player experience something that sucks.”
Couldn’t have said it better myself.
this is good and bad, if it gives you long enough to test the game it’ll be good, you want to play it for longer? Don’t be a cheapskint and buy the game.
that seems like a great marketing ploy, but a huge waste of money to develope and integrate into current software
Demos dont exactly have much content to speak of. If you havent finished what the demo provides in less than an hour, I am not sure how you are using the demo in the first place. not to mention… how many times can you play the same GOW3 level before getting bored and frustrated because it cuts off after 15 minutes of game play? I know most people cant just dump cash into every game, but demos are there to give you a taste … not be a game in and of itself. unless they are looking to make demos much bigger with shrinking weapons (which would be to much of a cost for sony), I dont see how this is bad for gamers.