PS Plus Premium could offer two-hour "trials" of full-price PlayStation games.
According to a report from Game Developer, "Sony has begun communicating with developers about its plans for timed game trials for PlayStation Plus Premium subscribers." Developers working on any game that costs upwards of $34 will be "required to create time-limited trials of their games," which "must be at least two hours long."
Developers will reportedly have three months from the launch of the game to release the trial, which will have to be available to PS Plus Premium subscribers for at least 12 months.The update is said to have come via the developer portal, but may not have been rolled out to all users at this time.
If these reports are accurate, we'll likely learn more in the coming weeks, as the PS Plus Premium release date rolls out across the world starting in late May. A large number of indie games are unlikely to be affected by the change, as many of them will fall beneath that $34 mark, but recent titles including A Plague Tale: Innocence and Kena: Bridge of Spirits would, which shopped at $39.99, would have had to provide demos. It's not clear whether Sony's major first-party titles, such as God of War: Ragnarok, will be affected, but they would certainly fall within the appropriate price bracket.
If those major releases did get demos, it would be an odd departure from Sony's decision not to include first-party titles in its subscription service at launch. You wouldn't get to play the whole game, admittedly, but you would be able to get a taste of the latest PS5 exclusives at no extra cost.
Here's how the subscription services stack up - PS Plus Premium vs Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.
