Sony Informs Developers Must Release Free 2-Hour Game Trials for PlayStation Plus Deluxe: Report

Sony has reportedly told developers to create free timed trials of their games for its upcoming highest tier of the new subscription, PlayStation Plus Premium (PlayStation Plus Deluxe in India). These free trials are purportedly required to be at least two-hour long. This policy is expected to only apply to games that will have a wholesale cost of over $34 (roughly Rs. 2,600). Furthermore, developers are expected to release free game trials only for upcoming titles. Already released games and PlayStation VR titles are believed to be exempted from this new policy.

The report from Game Developer suggests that developers would be given up to three months to release these trials from the date of the launch of their game on the PlayStation Store. They would have to keep these free trials live for at least 12 months for PlayStation Plus Deluxe and Premium users. Sony is said to be even open to custom game demos. Developers are supposedly still allowed to release games for free weekends and other promotional offers outside the PlayStation Plus Deluxe / Premium tier.

Ethan Gack from Kotaku suggests that these free game trials could be developed by the PlayStation Store team, which might prevent relatively smaller studios from getting overburdened with extra work. Still, concerns remain over these timed trials negatively impacting game sales. Also, Sony is believed to be not offering any extra perks to developers for releasing these free trials.

The all-new PlayStation Plus gaming subscription service has been confirmed to arrive in India on June 22. This three-tier service is divided into the PS Plus Essential, PS Plus Extra, and PS Plus Deluxe in India. Globally, the regions that support cloud streaming will receive the slightly expensive PS Plus Premium as the top subscription tier, instead of PS Plus Deluxe.