Sony Patents Degradable Video Game Demos

[wraggster]

Sony appears to be working on a new kind of video game demo. A patent filed by SCEA details a system that gives users a full or nearly complete game to play with, but slowly removes features until you buy it.

The software has customizable triggers that disable features after a set number of plays or lapsed play time. Let’s see some theoretical examples of how this could work.

In one scenario your weapon is weakened or replaced with a less powerful one after so many hours playing the game. Think of it as a timed level down.

Another idea Sony has is to remove levels, race tracks in this example, after you reach a certain number of plays. When you finally buy the game (bottom right) you can use all of the tracks again.

Removing weapons and playable characters are on the table too. Sony’s patent also lists subtle ideas such as softening sound effects, changing color depth, and/or brightness as other ways to encourage players to purchase a full version. In all cases, you can still play the game, just a limited version of it.

The patent says this system is better than current demos because degradable demos can be distributed on physical media and players can see the whole game for a limited amount of time. In other words, this system is “nag screen 2.0” that can be distributed on a disc and restored with an unlock key.

http://www.siliconera.com/2010/03/04/sony-patents-degradable-video-game-demos/

[VampDude]

The idea is already flawed, on a few levels of being a full game.

Downloadable:
For a demo, nobody would want to waste the time and bandwidth.

Game disc:
Over time, the system of which the demo media is to be played would be hacked and the user would already have the full game on the disc intended as a demo.

[symbal]

I dunno i just wouldn't think developers would like this because if you play the game it starts to get a bit crappy with all the features degrading and might put you off buying it, especially if you play the game on a mates system that's already degraded, i think they'll stick with demos like film trailers just showing the best parts of a potentially crappy game.

[wolfpack]

I already don't like this idea. PS3 demos are large enough as it is. Putting a whole PS3 game on the PSN store would just be way too much of a pain for most consumers to download. Hopefully this doesn't get put to use though. If I want a full game, I'll go out and buy it. If I want just a demo, just to see if it's any good or not, I'll stick to regular demos. I just want a small portion of a game that wont give me a nag screen unless if it's when I exit the game telling me to buy now...which only works if the game is good xP

[Shrygue]

True plus it won't do favours for those that have hard drive capacities of 20GB, maybe 40GB even cause they'll take up so much space.