Sony Patents Game Demos That Rot Over Time
Perhaps this means that those who do speedruns don't have to buy the full thing.
Game demos have long been a way for gamers to try before they buy. Of course, demos often give us only a very small small, often crippled slice of what the full game is like. Sometimes the demo offers a mid-game look, leaving us disoriented in relation to story. Sony's patented a solution to this: give gamers the full game that will rot over time.
According to Siliconera, Sony's patent covers a concept whereby gamers are given the full or nearly-complete game that will slowly have its features removed or disabled as playing time goes on.
Such 'degrading' features include a decrease in weapon level, or the removal of stages and tracks from a racing game. The patent also covers the amount of feedback the players get, as the system can also soften sound effects, change the color depth and brightness of the display.
The delivery of a near-full version of the game would certainly change means of distribution, making downloads of near-capacity Blu-ray Disc games impractical – but we've all lived through a time when demos came on floppies and CDs. Perhaps a purchasable online code would be able to unlock the full game without requiring the gamer to go through a retailer.
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sounds stupid
wow this is a bad idea, so many ways this could be abused
As long as the games don't come with internet-always-on DRM, I'm impressed.
Yeah, give people the entire game download for free, so then all they have to do is download a crack when the game starts degrading, instead of having to get the entire file. Great idea, Sony.
more rooms for hackers
seems unnecessary
You guys are thinking in terms of PCs. In terms of consoles (PS3 especially) this is genius since you can get into the game, then grow generally weaker and then popup! "Do you want to buy the game through PSN?" It will also let you use the character data and saves from the demo, which is nice. It's genius for the PS3 because that console is notoriously hard to crack. Besides, if the consoles hardware DRM is cracked, they can download the game and play it anyway.
Any demo that lets me play the actual game, even if it's for a shortened time, is fine by me.
As soon as these come out they are going to be cracked. Once that happens people will have no reason to buy the game, they will already have it =). at least the dishonest ones
Hey sony, how about just give out all your games for free and if people like it, you will get donations.
This is already amounting to the "retarded" year in gaming.
Dang, this is a fun game... let me play a few levels...
wow... this is fun... I'll play for a few hours now, and again when I get up in the morning...
Morning comes...
I know I drank a little last night, these graphics aren't so good... the sound stinks... I thought I had better gear yesterday... Whatever, I'm not buying this game.
They were granted a patent for this ?
How briliant is this idea anyway ? So when another developer tries to do the same thing, they can't unless they pay Sony ? There is absolutely nothing new in this idea, nothing clever, no miracle programming here, it's just a simple time quality implementation.
What kind of stupid patent system allows for such a patent ?
You would do it too, if Sony belonged to You.
*facepalm* They KNOW they can't give out the full game, it'll just be cracked
And this will take speed runs to another level. Stupid idea.
i think it is stupid sony was allowed to patent this idea , time based demos are nothing new ther have been quite a few pc gmae demos that were time based (( suually 2d flash based game))
I think if it works properly, this will be nice. I personally don't purchase a game without a demo, even if it means pirating and then going back and paying for it. TBH, the people who pirate will always pirate. This won't make it much harder to do that...
Bad idea. It could be easily cracked. Makes a little sense if they exclude multiplayer components.
I don't know how this is a "new" idea. It's just a time based demo with a twist. Time based demos have been around for 20 years.
Why do people keep saying it will be cracked? Of course it will. But how is that ANY different from what the current state is. People are going to crack the full games anyway...how is this any more accessible? It's not. I think it's a great idea for the honest consumer. This dishonest one is getting the game free anyway, demo or not.
What next: full games that magically open your wallet and grab more cash if you buy them second-hand?! Better not go there I guess, eh, Sony..
I think that would leave us even more disoriented!
Sorta like how the games rot your brain as you play 'em.
This isn't actually about demos. Its about used games. They will try to use this to lock out used games and make it so after a game is so many months old or used on a different console/pc it'll degrade. The industry wants to move consumers away from buying games to licensing/renting games so they can keep charging them money and kill the ability to sell used games.
This idea is nothing new. People were talking about degrading demos and degrading copy protection several years ago. It still hasn't happened, and being granted a patent for such a general concept is silly.
i'm gona go patent patent.
Reminds me of a "new and improved" version of the 30 day free trial.
sounds cool. In theory. May as well just make it a limited time trial though.
Sounds cool, I can imagine this working in a car racing game. You play for 2 hours and the wheels just fly off. Game degraded......
More like Sony degraded...
Don't think they should've been able to patent it. But I see nothing wrong with the idea itself. It's actually a decent one. Specially for multiplayer games *that can't be cracked. Will you can but can plan on legit servers*. Games are already being pirated this is nothing new, so using that as "it will just be cracked" is a no shit sherlock moment. But it's gonna be up on torrents as fast as it comes out anyways, if not before it actually comes out lol.