Sony Introduces Game Trials, Try PS5 Games for a Limited Time

This could be Sony answer to gamepass some what.

5 hours from starting the download!?!? It’s gonna take me 6 hours to download it! Come on Sony!

@Stragen8 I was thinking this, those with slow internet speeds are screwed!

I quite like these things on the Switch, I beat Mario Tennis in my trial time. ‘From starting the download’ is a hilarious oversight though. Not everyone has NASA internet.

Does it say anything about whether or not the progress caries over?

@prince_myshkin It wouldn't make any sense that it wouldn't. Even though you're on a timer, you're still playing the same game.

have not gotten an email for this.

@prince_myshkin Progress does carry over, yes. Just updated the article with a bit more info.

To be fair, the PS5 does download a lot faster then PS4 and the games may have ‘download 10% for quick start’ but still - most of the US does not have fast internet and I’m sure many other countries are the same.

Great feature but shouldn't be starting the timer until the game is "ready to play" at the least.

This is very cool, but they need to make the timer start when you launch the game, not when you start the download. How is that even an issue??

@Voltan
Agreed, that should be the starting point for the countdown.

Overall this is a cool concept, though. I could see myself using these at some point.

"The timer starts from download." Oh Sony, Sony... One step forward, two steps back. It's a cool feature, but with a huge caveat.

From what i've heard, isnt this more likely to damage sales of Death Stranding. I've not played yet, but heard it doesn't really get going till chapter 4.

Love the idea, and it works well on switch - but they would be better limiting to x amount of hours total playtime over a week, rather than expecting you to play for 6 hours off the bat.

As others have said, fact timer starts when you begin the download is laughable

Somewhat nice but two games to download and play for some hours - one evening if you’re lucky with your download - is too little too late if it’s Sony’s answer to Gamepass. And these games are not properly megastars. I don’t understand why Sony bothers to implement this new feature that will receive at best meh comments.

You can only pick one and starts from the moment you click download. Pointless. Try harder Sony. Next.

A neat idea that I support for all present and future PS5 games but they need to remove the timer oversight asap, I'm currently out of the country and would literally take me 20-30 hours to download Death stranding 😑

Nice, This is the answer to no Demos in modern gaming.

Has anyone tried it yet... is it really from the start of the download?

Surprised to hear that trophies are enabled. They're not usually on Unisoft 'free weekends' (Assassin's Creed, Watch Dogs, The Crew etc) although I think they are on EA Play 10 hours trials.

Also surprised they've announced it via email rather than the PS Blog.

So timed demos basically

@Shepherd_Tallon @get2sammyb triggering it based on first booting the game would result in easier manipulation by going offline. But based on “ready to play” would make sense.

Ah, reminds me of renting back in the day. Dad rents you a game for 24 hours, makes you excited, then forces you to go to grandmas for half of it.

Wasn't this just known as 'demos' back in the day? Every game (at least first party) should have this, doesn't even need to be five or six hours long, just a brief playable demo. I may have bought sack boy, demons souls, ratchet etc had i known how they play and look. I'm not going to drop £70 on them to find out

I really hope this is just testing the waters, before they roll out a full trial program for all games on psn. Seeing as their refund system is notoriously strict.

That’s nice.
I might give Death stranding a try while I own Sackboy already.

This is being compared to the Switch Game Trials but this is basically the same thing as those timed trial versions of games on PS3 where you could download a full game and play for an hour before deciding to buy it or not.

It's an interesting idea. Demos used to be common but many people played the demo and had their fill, while other games sucked and the demo showed it.

The Resi 2 demo was interesting because it was time limited. You got a taste but couldn't even play the demo after you first tried. It left me wanting more.

Trials of good games, which have already been released for a while, could be a decent way to promote them.

Sony are the new Nintendo. They almost get it right only to fumble it in the end. Common sense tells us the timer should start when you launch the game, otherwise they're expecting you to wait for potentially 7-8 hours in front of your TV, including download time. Just plan silly.

This is pretty cool but yeah that timer needs to start the 1st time you start the actual GAME not the download lol.

Isnt death stranding a huge download? Cant see people properly playing this with the given time

So can you make a new account, set as the PS5 equivalent of Primary, then continue for another 6 hours on your original account? Or do you lose the progress. Also, do you get trophies.
Not sure why I’m asking as I’m not really interested in DS and I have Sackboy, but my mind just automatically seeks ways to be a pr*ck

What a lovely, unexpected little feature 🙈. But please remove download time from play time. Otherwise this is great. Bear in mind, the inevitable backlash against download time being involved will be great free marketing. I bet richreviewtech will be drooling as we speak 🙈

@Danloaded No. Try before you buy more like.

This will also be great to whet the appetite for demon's souls and returnal.

@RicebinBernacky I think this would be a good precedent for all games in future. Plus the retention rate will probably be higher than gamepass.

@4kgk2 ? Xbox already does loads off free trials. Answer to gamepass it is not

Xbox already does game demos and weekend trials. They also do game pass.
https://www.purexbox.com/news/2021/09/ww2_shooter_hell_let_loose_now_has_a_10-hour_free_trial_on_xbox
https://www.purexbox.com/news/2021/07/the_sinking_city_now_has_a_free_trial_on_xbox_series_xs
https://www.purexbox.com/news/2021/06/xbox_summer_demo_fest_now_live_40plus_games_available

Yeah, I can't help raising an eyebrow at the timer start, too. Even PS4 games can take a while, and PS5 ones tend to be that much bulkier. And it also sounds - correct me if I'm wrong - like this timer won't stop inbetween sessions either, meant to be one big sampling. Maybe these 5-6 hours actually accomodate for the download time on top of that?😅 Because even among folks who can afford to be at home for long (aka the home console target audiences), securing an uninterrupted 6 hour playtime session is a bit far from a given.

@Danloaded not really. Timed demos are usually on game play…

Not 5 hours in one day including download

I don't really see the need for things like this. Unless you're just getting into gaming is it really hard to tell if you're going to like a game by watching gameplay?

I'd rather they disable trophies for this. If I choose not to buy the game for whatever reason I'm stuck with incomplete trophies, my OCD will prevent me from doing it which I wouldn't mind trying Death Stranding out.

@Lando_ I was thinking the same thing. Every time Sony seems to do something great they find some way to set themselves back. I just can’t imagine sitting in meeting discussing this and someone going “and the timer starts as soon as the download starts,” some else chimes in, “That’s brilliant, go with it!”

Well, this is does nothing for me. Depending on how big the game is, I may end up spending my whole game trial time downloading it. Not exaggerating, and I know there's plenty of other people who are stuck with DSL internet that can take that many hours and then some to download a large game. That and the fact that the game trials expire. If you're going to offer them, they should be up there for good (or at least a year), but this is one of the same reasons I will continue to ignore PS Now.

I didn't read through all of the comments to see how positively this is being received here, but honestly they would have been better off skipping this because once you get to the fine print it's a joke and just another sign of how out of touch with certain things they are compared to the PS3 to PS4 days. They may get positive press about it, but that will likely be from places either not reading the fine print or just conveniently ignoring it.

No, I'm not an Xbot of course. My PS5 is my main console over my Series X, but I'm not going to give them praise for something that is so poorly executed to the point where they should have never bothered. Again, including the download time is laughably bad if I was an Xbot.

Like PS4 games you don't need to download the full game to start. You need just the first part to start the game then the rest downloads in the background.

@Ultrasmiles plus it’s a Kojima game, so between the download time and four hour opening cutscene you won’t even actually get to try it

Heads up if you're worried about download times eating into the trial... just download it with another account (same region). When it's complete and you're ready to play on your main account, just press Add to Library and you can start immediately as it's already downloaded.

Shouldn’t it be re-introduces game trials, they had them on the PS3.

@LiamCroft do you know if updates would need to be downloaded as well prior to playing some of these games?

The time should start from the moment you click start, not from the start of the download.

@Stragen8 yeah it is stupid it can take hours to download sometimes and you might not want to play it right away or have the time to . They should track when you play the game .

@Stragen8 I think it is meant to say that the timer starts as soon as you start the downloaded game. Once the game starts the first time that's it you have 5 hours regardless of if you turn off PS5. Surely Sony can't be that stupid and mean to people with crappy connections if what is written is true.

@Denni5m I’ve seen other sites reporting that it’s as soon as you start the download too. Unless you meant the email meant to say that, but I feel like that’s a huge overdose on Sony’s part to release that.

@4kgk2 More like a answer to EA Access than an answer to Game Pass.

5 hours? I won't play Sackboy more than 5-10 minutes!

@NickTheGeek From where my ps4 is I get 2-3 mbps. So this would be absolutely useless then lol

The timer starts as soon as the download starts? What sense does that make? People who have slow internet speeds will be screwed over unless the time trial is repeatable.

Why is Sony always one step forward two steps back so far this generation? Give us game trials - great. Making it so the trial starts whilst spending hours downloading and then having to ensure you're at your console ready to play the second it's downloaded so a very odd decision. Why not just let us stream the game instead then? They have the tech. Even switch is doing streaming game trails

Finally, proper PS5 game trials! I already have Sackboy, but I thought I’d try the opening half hour of Death Stranding before I go to bed to see if I like it… three straight hours later, it’s 2.15am and I’m all in for a full retail purchase.

[NOTE] I thought the download would likely take up a big chunk of that six hour time limit, but to my surprise, the game was ready to play in a whisker shy of an hour.

This is a cool feature, I'll try both. I hope sony add this as psplus features, 3-5 hours of playtime for all sony published titles seems a great features for psplus.

What did I learn from 6 hours and 5 hours?

I'll never buy Sackboy! LBP was better. And I think Astros Playroom is more fun.

As for Death Stranding after playing the PS4 version. I see no reason to get this either.

Another note. It was not available on Ireland. I had to use my UK account to download the trials.

I got around 1 hours gameplay. And later they were locked so I deleted them!

Now if Spiderman Miles Morales or Another better PS5 game was on trial. Then I might decide to BUY a game. Not paying full price for a game I've finished.

Trophies should be disabled for this. If i dont like the game then i have like 1 trophy for this game.

Both games are on my wishlist so I'm quite happy to see this. Will give them a go this weekend!

Yeah, having the timer start once you hit download is really dumb.

"Since Game Trials are limited to PS5 titles, the PS4 version of Sackboy: A Big Adventure doesn't qualify for this free test."

I'm really disappointed that PS4 isn't included as I've been hoping for a demo of Sackboy.

Sony board : for the people who have fast internet they will like the game and buy it
and for the ppl with slow internet they will get hyped up for the game and the timer is still going then they finally get to the game and realise they got 10 minutes left some ppl will say sod it I'll just buy it more $$$$$$

@4kgk2 Totally, except for the part where it's nothing like GP.

Great idea with Sony adding their signature touch to it and rendering it useless. Timer starts from download time? How silly

I am a little bit annoyed.

I saw Sackboy on offer in the sale at 11am (while working). Saw it had a trial, so hit the download button.

Work finished around 5pm.

Went downstairs to the PS5 to play it...

Expired 🤬

It never once told me I had 5 hours to use the trial.

@dimi If thate the case why do you even download it? I dont know what you want to say with this reaction?

@Jayofmaya I remember those times but whats the use of playing on newer consoles with these speeds anymore what if you have to download AC with a size 100 GB download.

Sidenote it so surprised thar the US has such horrible connections, bad infrastructure, healthcare if you have money for it, politicians that try to keep people from voting instead of helping to put in a vote.

Been said by others here countless times, but I'll echo the sentiments of timed, including download time.
Stupid.
And I've got fast internet.

But I wouldn't be surprised if they change tack by the end of next week and adjust it so it won't be included.

What corporate stooge greenlighted that???

@LiamCroft "I was thinking this, those with slow internet speeds are screwed!"

That's not true though is it? Most games can be started minutes into a download. You can begin playing the game as soon as enough has been downloaded to the PS to get going and then it will continue downloading and installing as you play. You don't have to install the entire game before you begin. Some games will also give you the choice of downloading the SP or the MP first.

i didn't get an email.

lol ... instead do a 2~3 hours trial, after the game has downloaded completely.

"playing" Death Stranding now. I say "playing" as its quite cut scene heavy isn't it? I might get about 10 minutes of play in this 6 hour trial...

It's not looking good for me! 🙄

As soon as you start the download? Welp looks like I won't be able to benefit from this.

@4kgk2 Sarcasm? This is nothing like gamepass lol....Xbox already offers free trials they have for ages

Ok so the timer runs during download, it's ok everyone really it's ok. Simple solution, dont download the game to begin with and go outside for a walk.

Make a new account with same region with your main account

Click Download Trial on new account

After download, go to main account and click on Download Trial

Because you downloaded before, you don't need download again and can play

Enjoy

Bringing back demos would be better.

Wasn't SONY going to do this for the PS4 once? I am sure they said it once before the PS4 came out and I thought it was a BRILLIANT idea then. REALLY REALLY REALLY hope this boosts their game sales so they can do more games in the future (everything on PSN would be COOL if you could try before you buy. GOD I miss the old days with nearly every game having demos for them)

@Stragen8 why would it take you 6 hours? Do you have dial up or something?

Maybe you can't afford a faster connection which is possible but then you wouldn't own a PS5 if you couldn't afford a connection that would let you download a game of 30GB in under 6 hours.

Do you live in a place with no internet options maybe?

@VonPit How are download speeds that slow possible?

@Flaming_Kaiser

Average connection speed in USA is about 42mbps. That's what people PAY for, not what is available.

At that speed a 30Gb Sackboy download would take an hour and 42 minutes.

Another reason the speed is that low is because USA has large rural areas with lower connection speeds that drag the average down.

If you find some sites online that do speed ranking you'll see that USA is actually pretty good considering it's size and population distribution. It's still higher than the majority of European countries.

80% of Americans have access to Gigabit internet access btw. And it's not that expensive, I pay 80 bucks a month all in for 1 Gigabit speeds. That's with Verizon FiOS.

So a lot of what you wrote is recycled American stereotypes that don't really represent reality.

@prince_myshkin Apparently you didn't fully pay attention to the article so let me help you out a bit: "Your progress, save data, and Trophies will all carry over into the full game should you choose to buy either title after the Game Trial expires." So yes if download one of the trials and you happen to enjoy the game and want to buy it then everything carries over.

My download took longer than the five hours, so I couldn't play, so I switched to my wife's account and "downloaded" the free trial from there and was then able to play. For anyone else with slow internet ✌

Oh dear...

Isn't it easier to get something like this right than wrong?

@Flaming_Kaiser True, I should probably just stop gaming.

@Jayofmaya Thats not really what im saying im saying. If you dont like it why would you play it? If i know i dont like a game i would not waste time on it.

@GreatAuk Is that including TV and telephone? Its because i hrar avlot of people complain about the terrible connection. I guess there is no datacap in the US? Because if i have blazing fast internet with a datacap whats the use? And is the speed what people get or what is advertised?

Every single game should have a trial

@GreatAuk Just because somebody can afford a PS5, it doesn't automatically mean that gigabit internet makes economic sense for them. Compared to, say, my own functional-but-frugal plan, you're basically shelling out for an entire PS5 extra and then some every single year just for the sake of being able to finish large downloads in minutes instead of hours.

If Amazon was selling a subscription service for unlimited sub-one-hour delivery of physical purchases for $500/year, it'd be seen as a quite expensive luxury; if they tacked on a rider saying <*digital goods only>, people would be lambasting it as a scam for the ages. That's basically what you're paying for above and beyond a slower internet plan.

@GreatAuk I’ve had games/large updates (100GB) on my PS4 take over a day. That’s with 100 MBPS internet speeds, but the system downloads much slower. Now the PS5 can handle faster download speeds vs the ps4 but it’s still not at what I’m getting from my internet provider.

Before you go on an entitled rant maybe you should take a few more things into consideration. How about a multi family household where there are multiple downloads or streaming at the same time? How about Comcast deciding to have an outage while you’re download.

@Flaming_Kaiser we have a data cap and most speeds are slower then advertised - well - they fluctuate.

@Flaming_Kaiser some people have a data cap, but they are usually around 1.25T a month, and even with pandemic usage the average USA usage went up to around 400GB a month.

I also get the speed that is advertised. The 80 bucks a month doesn't include tv or phone.

To reiterate, not everyone has data caps, I don't have one for example. Verizon doesn't have one. And a couple other companies that have a cap give you the option for unlimited if you REALLY want it. But 95% of people come nowhere near the cap so it's not something most people would be interested in.

@Fath I originally paid for 200 Mbps but I saw Verizon was offering Gigabit connection for 20 bucks more than what I was paying so I decided to go for it.

@Stragen8

There was nothing entitled to what I was saying. Actually you sound entitled to think of cutting edge gaming on the latest consoles as anything but a luxury.

Having a PS5 and buying 70 dollar games and paying for multiplayer services and accessories and DLCs and other digital content is most definitely a luxury.

If you have multiple people in your household (like me) don't schedule and plan large downloads when everyone is streaming at the same time. That's life.

If Comcast decides to go down when you want to play your free demo, then that's just bad luck, what can I tell you.

The PS4 argument is irrelevant since this demo service doesn't even apply to that console.

You should pay for a faster speed if 100mbps isn't good enough. If you got your quoted speed you'd be able to download 30GB in 50 minutes. With a quick google search it looks like you can double you speed for another 15 bucks a month.

Finally as others have metioned, you do not have to download the whole game to be able to play it. You usually only need 20% to 30% of the full download to be able to play a game.

@GreatAuk lol

@Flaming_Kaiser Well, honestly, with a game like Death Stranding I would like a demo. A lot of people said it was boring and not so much a game, I watched a bit of footage and it looked that way. Yet, here it is with a new director's cut and selling well, so it may well be more fun to experience first hand. I won't know because the time starts from the moment you begin the download, not when it's playable. As a result I can't be convinced and I probably won't get the game. This is theoretical, anyway, because I'm using a ps4 pro, not a ps5. Just saying, it could be that way for a lot of people. If they're going to try this sort of thing, mightas well get it right.

OK, well I've just tried this out with Death Stranding and what a ridiculous game to trial. By the time I'd downloaded it and then got around to playing it, I had about 1 and a half hours of playtime left, of which 95% was cut scenes. The other 5% was spent walking through a barren landscape with nothing to do but well, walk. Absolute joke to start the time trial from the point of downloading. Still, it was just about time for me to see how boring this movie, oh sorry, 'game' really is. Thanks Sony, won't be be buying this one.

@VonPit Get off dial up internet

@DeathPunch3520 And apparently you didn’t fully pay attention to the thread where LiamCroft (#9) responded me and said he was gonna update the article to include that info. But nice try🤭

@Stragen8 There is literally no universe where you have a 100mbps internet speed and it takes you a day to download a 100gb game or large patch...LMFAO you people who make crap up are ridiculous, maybe IF your stealing your internet from your neighbor or mom wont upgrade and 10 people are all connected to your wi-fi....

I know this for a fact because I have a wired 100mbps connection I am the only thing that connects to it and can download a 100+gb game in 30 minutes or less...Large patches take literally less than 5-10 minutes....

Nice idea if they fix it.
Demos remind me of why I bought pc gamer magazine back in the day. It came with a demo cd of multiple games. I think they even named it like pc underground. I remember popping in the disc and a video pops up showing going down an elevator to your selection of demos. I played the quake demo for hours lol.

@__marc And i know for a fact on my OG PS4 my speeds were often capped at 3-4 MBPS while my phone would read speed test of 100. Now the PS5 does download significantly faster but that doesn’t mean Sony’s idea of timers starting at download is a good idea. Games are only getting larger.

I’m glad you have god tier internet but your experiences arent universal. This discussion is based on a bad policy not how internet bottlenecks are different for different conditions.

@Jester1701one Not sure about Death Stranding, but I downloaded the Sackboy trial yesterday and trophies are NOT enabled.

@RubyCarbuncle @GreatAuk I live in rural Spain. I have 15Mb and the wife streaming Netflix in another room! I need to try to get something better without breaking the bank.

The problem with this is that the timer starts as soon as you start downloading the title.

Sony, not all of us stupid fast internet. I pull down about 50-70mbps most of the time.

Once again gaming companies hate those of us in rural areas. I literally have the fastest, best option you can get in certain parts of the rural United States. I ping low enough to play SFV with barely any lag in 90% of the matches I play. But my DL speeds are limited to 90mbps max when there’s low network traffic at 2 in the morning. Most of the time, it’s anywhere from 30mbps on the low end to 50-70 on the high end. Depends on network congestion since it’s over the air through LTE.

@VonPit

God and I thought I had it bad.

@GreatAuk

Depends on where you live.

I live in a rural part of the deep south. The best I can get is Fixed Wireless through ATT.

It’s a lot better than Satellite, but my speeds are sort of all over the place. If there’s very low network traffic I’ve seen speeds of nearly 90mbs.

Lowest is 30mbps. It usually hovers around 45-50mbps, sometimes hitting 70mbps on perfect days (low traffic, perfectly clear weather, etc.)

Right now I’m seeing the lower end of the spectrum thanks to the crappy weather we’ve been having since Ida and the fact that the infrastructure still isn’t back to pre hurricane levels. They even canceled accepting new members for the next few months.

@Integrity As someone with slow download speeds. Not once has that download as you play been reliable... Most of the time getting to the required % of download takes 3+ hrs. Alot of game will only allow for you start the game and get to the title screen, but won't allow you to go any further until another huge chuck of download has been completed.

The few games that actual allow you to play while it downloads only get you access to like chapter 1, prologue, or 20 minutes of gameplay after I sat for 3+ hrs waiting.

@Floki fair enough. I've not had that. The last one for me was Spider-Man and my game wasn't interrupted as it downloaded in the background. But then I'm on fibre so that helps.

@TheRedComet Yea if you're in a rural part of the country you're going to have a slower overall speed available to you.

I don't expect to have 5G reception in the sticks either. It comes with the territory.

But even at say your middle number of 40mbps that's not that bad, you could download 30GB in an hour 45 minutes. Let's say you need about 30% of the file to start playing, that puts you at a wait time of around 35 minutes.

That's not bad. Pretty good for rural part of the deep south!

@Integrity Yeah. I'm a 20mbps DWN ADSL connection... I only get the full 20 DWN on a good day.

EDIT: Probably get anywhere from 15-18 DWN average connected directly to my router.

@GreatAuk

I’ll admit that I got spoiled by my previous internet provider. I worked in a decent size city and had cable. I pulled down 300mbps almost all the time. I got spoiled by it.

When I moved back into the rural area I grew up in… man it’s good compared to what a lot of people can get but compared to my previous cable… it’s depressing. 100 gig downloads were nothing.

@Mega-Gazz Require you to be online to play the trial. Simple solution.

@GreatAuk Thanks for the answer.

@Jaz007 Sounds easier and then the timer starts the second you start up the game.

I don’t see any trials available at all :/

@NickTheGeek What is a cat 6? At first I imagined a little feline sized bump moving around your carpets haha Yeah, we have 18mbps (with fibre, believe it or not!) If I ran LaN cable but it's like 3 walls and a whole lot of cable wall clips to nail in so I've just kinda dealt with it. I always have just enough to play online now, but I remember the days I didn't haha

@NickTheGeek ahh, yes. I meant ethernet, too haha

Is that where you just bounce the signal off of another router type thing? I was contemplating doing that at one point.

@get2sammyb I wouldn’t expect any less from Sony.

@Voltan I don’t expect this to change. Probably an infrastructure issue rather than an intentional choice.

@NickTheGeek it’s disappointing. Sony definitely didn’t have the foresight for a lot of things that Microsoft clearly did. Same thing with the PS now not having Ps5 versions of games. If I were Sony I’d be throwing everything at resolving these kinds of issues.

The PS4 has a Demo section under games - wouldn't it be better for the PS5 to have demos? Or is it just laziness on Sony's behalf?

"Since Game Trials are limited to PS5 titles, the PS4 version of Sackboy: A Big Adventure doesn't qualify for this free test."
Yeah, thanks New Sony - ignore the 80 million plus PS4 owners.

@NickTheGeek Cool. Thanks for the explanation! I'll probably opt for the hotspots. I should imagine I'd only really need one extra node between the ps4 and router.

@prince_myshkin read the article again lol

@Corc11 For crying out loud… when I read the article there was no info regarding save file transfer, hence my question. Liam, the writer of said article, then responded me and wrote that he was gonna update the article with the info - which is why the article now includes info in that regard.

If you wanna be a smart-ass at least make sure you’re smart 😜

Touché sir, touché.

https://www.psu.com/news/biomutant-is-also-available-for-a-game-trial-on-ps5-and-ps4/

Looks like the PS4 is getting in on the action too