Sony’s proposed idea for “degradable” game demos is still in the concept stage, but it’s already getting blasted.
Videogame demos are are a major tool for developers and publishers when it comes to promoting games. However, it turns out that demos are a bit of a double-edged sword, since players might not buy a game if they feel they got too much of a game experience. Sony’s proposed solution to this is to make “degradable” versions of a game available that would gradually lose features until a player decided to buy the title. It’s certainly a novel idea, but David Perry – founder of Shiny Entertainment – thinks Sony is out of its mind.
Speaking at the [ a ] list summit, Perry blasted Sony’s patent for this proposed demo system. According to him, the patent is “garbage.” Exactly what he didn’t like about the system is unclear, but he clearly disapproved of the whole idea. He also asked Sony, “Have you lost your minds?”
It should be noted that, while a patent has been filed, this doesn’t mean that Sony is actively working to implement the system. Of course, Perry was promoting Gaikai, his new cloud-based gaming service that allows users to play complete PC and console videogames over the web. As a result, it’s not exactly super-surprising that the man was quick to dismiss anything that could be a potential rival to his program.
Personally, I think Sony’s idea sounds like it has a lot of potential. Gamers often want a real sense of how a title plays (which can be difficult to see in a standard demo) and publishers want to sell more games. The Gaikai model doesn’t sound terrible, either, and I’d be interested in seeing both systems in action before decrying either as a bad idea.
Source: Industry Gamers
