A new PlayStation Plus policy makes it so any new game published must come with a two-hour minimum demo for subscribers.
Game developers hoping to publish anything on the PlayStation Store for $34 USD or more in the near future will have to include a two-hour demo for PlayStation Plus subscribers. That’s two hours minimum.
This is part of Sony’s all-new PlayStation Plus, a three-tier subscription service that brings together over 700 games with different titles accessible to different tiers. It taps into existing libraries from various PlayStation consoles, but there is no word on support for PS Vita or any PSP ports.
According to Game Developer, studios have started to receive notices from Sony’s developer portal. And apparently, this is the first they’re hearing of it. Thankfully for the developers, PlayStation won’t apply the new policy retroactively.
VR games are also left untouched. This is a shame for gamers who aren’t willing to shell out big bucks for old games they’re still on the fence about.
Instead, the policy is concerned with new PlayStation games and upcoming releases. Developers have been told they have up to three months from release to put out a demo. By 12 months, it’ll have to be available on the subscription service.
Developers that don’t like the policy can propose custom game demos, but Sony is only considering that at this stage. We can guess it’ll be dealt with on a case by case basis.
This new approach won’t impact existing demos, and developers can still run promotions like free-to-play weekends. Either way, it’s great news for PlayStation fans and a significant step from Sony to combat what Microsoft is doing with their Xbox Game Pass. Will the new PlayStation Plus demo model be enough?
The all-new PlayStation Plus model will launch on May 23 in Asian markets, June 1 in Japan, and June 13 and 22 for the Americas and Europe respectively.
