Update | Game Developer has provided a clarification that might be a game changer. The price of 33 euros from which a game must present a trial version does not ultimately correspond to the price as it is displayed at retail on the PlayStation Store (retail price) but at wholesale price (wholesale price) which is significantly lower. In other words, the obligation to present a trial version would rather be limited to the most expensive games on the PlayStation Store, possibly those sold at least 60 euros for the consumer.
Pending an official communication from PlayStation, Game Developer’s sources reveal that all games sold for at least 33 euros (34 dollars in the United States, 4,000 yen in Japan) on the PlayStation Store will have to come with a version of minimum two-hour trial (which is also the maximum game time to get a refund for any Steam game). These trial versions will thus be accessible to PlayStation Plus Premium subscribers, but not necessarily from the day the game is released.
The developers indeed keep the freedom to offer their free trial no later than three months following the release of their game, once it has already achieved the bulk of its sales. Additionally, a free trial must remain available to PlayStation Plus Premium subscribers for at least 12 months, but the developer may choose to remove it following that.
At first glance, the directive seems as appreciable for the consumer as it is restrictive for modest teams, which often explain that creating playable demos takes time and money. It remains to be seen to what extent these trial versions really represent a constraint for the studios, because in practice it is essentially a question of activating the full game for two hours.
The studios will also always have the possibility of designing playable demos without a time limit if they wish, the same for operations of the free weekend type. No trial version will be requested for games whose launch price is less than 33 euros. Additionally, this guidance is not retroactive and therefore does not apply to previously released games, or past, present or future PlayStation VR games.
