MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
A new take on how to deliver demo games has reportedly been patented by PlayStation platform holder Sony.
Best described as a ‘deteriorating’ or ‘degradable’ tech, the idea is that gamers would initially receive the full version of the game in question. However, over time features would be removed until gamers are eventually left with a bare shell of game. This could then be restored to its full glory by a digital purchase.
Example cited by Siliconera see player’s weapons slowly decrease in power the longer the game is played, or tracks/levels disappearing one-by-one over an pre-determined timescale.
Other detrimental effects include more innovative ideas such as the loss of colour of sound quality over time.
Effectively the content is being blocked from the end user. However, as the content is still present and correct a simply digital code purchase is all that’s necessary to restore the game to its full story.
