Sony PlayStation Plus will now include two hours of free trial time in its games as part of its premium subscription.
To be included in Sony's PlayStation Plus Premium plans, the company recently announced to its developers that they will be required to generate timed trials for their games that cost $34 or more wholesale.
PlayStation Plus Free Trial
PlayStation game developers collectively have mixed reactions to Sony's newly released guidelines.
Established gaming companies like Activision Blizzard, 2K Games, and Sony's in-house studios will most certainly have the resources necessary to create these time-limited game trials.
Undeniably, these established game publishers gain a consistent amount of revenue from the sale of PlayStation Plus Premium memberships. On the contrary, there are also significant concerns and worries on the part of small game developers. This PlayStation Plus free trial would place a major burden on small teams.
Furthermore, aspiring developers and publishers planning to release on the PlayStation Store in the future should be aware of this new requirement and allocate time and resources to create these new timed free trials.
According to Polygon, Sony would offer creators up to three months following a game's release on the PlayStation Store to release a timed trial. If creators prefer to submit a demo instead of a trial version, Sony will reportedly review and approve those titles on an individual basis.
In a statement citing development sources, Game Developer claims that the rules are not retrospective and do not apply to new PlayStation VR titles. As reported, this announcement was made on Sony's developer portal and was used to tell a large number of developers about the new policy.
The PlayStation Plus Premium program, which will include these new trial versions and cost $119.99 per year or $17.99 per month, will be available starting in June. It will cost more or less depending on how many months gamers choose to sign up for.
PlayStation Plus Subscription
Sony recently introduced a new subscription plan for PlayStation Plus. It's now possible to subscribe to both PlayStation Plus and PlayStation Now as part of a single subscription service. These additional tiers will be made available to players in Asia beginning in June, followed by North America, Europe, and the rest of the world after that.
As The Verge reported, two new PlayStation Plus subscription levels will provide access to multiplayer gaming as well as a portfolio of chosen PlayStation games that can be downloaded or streamed via the PlayStation Store. Here are the
- PlayStation Plus Extra contains everything in Plus Essential as well as access to a library of up to 400 PS4 and PS5 games. $14.99 a month or $99.99 for a year.
- PlayStation Plus Premium offers all of the benefits of PlayStation Plus Essential and Extra, plus an additional 340 games, including streamable PS3 titles and several original PlayStation, PS2, and PSP games. There are also limited-time game trials available. It's $17.99 a month or $119.99 for a year.
- PlayStation Plus Essential will have multiplayer access, two monthly downloadable titles, discounts, and cloud storage for saved games, all included for the price of $9.99 per month or $59.99 for the year.
With this, PlayStation Now will no longer be available as a stand-alone service after this implementation.
