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Sony Patents Game Demos With Feature Erosion

Posted by timothy on from the annoyance-codified dept.

MojoKid writes "When a game developer releases a demo, it's typically intended to entice players into first trying and then purchasing the full version. This is the stuff of Game Design 101 for most of us, but a crack team of cutting-edge gaming researchers at Sony have applied for a patent based on a novel concept: game demos that become progressively less fun the more you play. Sony refers to this as 'feature erosion.' The idea behind this dubious concept is that gamers will become hooked on a game while it's still in demo, then squawk unhappily as features and abilities they've unlocked begin to disappear. In order to prevent this, the player ponies up for the full version. A demo or program that provides limited functionality or play time is one thing; a game that's purposefully designed to take your progress away, in an admitted attempt to get you to buy once you've been hooked, is something altogether different."

23 of 200 comments (clear)

  1. What's the problem? by dtmos · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Lots of demo software is designed to stop working entirely after the demo period expires. The concept of doing this gradually over time seems, if anything, more humane.

    I suggest we roll over and go back to sleep -- or at least save our angst for worthy matters.

    1. Re:What's the problem? by blai · · Score: 4, Insightful

      If someone gave me the car for free...

      --
      In soviet Russia, God creates you!
    2. Re:What's the problem? by rastilin · · Score: 2, Interesting

      If someone gave me the car for free...

      It would still be irritating and you would start to dislike them just a little bit more every time you lost a feature.

      --
      How do you kill that which has no life?
    3. Re:What's the problem? by Pharmboy · · Score: 4, Insightful

      If someone gave me the car for free...

      No one is "giving" you anything, they are allowing you to test drive it, that is all. So, for the car analogy, you go to the Ford dealership to test drive a car. After the first mile, it won't go over 30. After 3 miles, it won't go over 20. After 5 miles, it will only idle, forcing you to pull over. Then a salesman drives up in his demo model and offers you a ride back if you promise to buy the car. Yea, thats a good idea. Does that make you want to buy it? I didn't think so.

      --
      Tequila: It's not just for breakfast anymore!
    4. Re:What's the problem? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Why does this have to work on a demo? This could be a good model for subscription based games (if you don't keep paying money in your MMORPG, you lose a level per day and a magic item per week).

    5. Re:What's the problem? by TuaAmin13 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I may be in the minority here, but I think the above analogy is flawed and this might actually be a decent idea.

      Try: You go to a Ford dealer and test a car. It goes like it should. You say "Eh, let me sleep on it" and come back the next day. Then you test drive it again, but this time the salesman thinks you're just trying to drive the car around town, so he gives you a shorter test drive, perhaps not on the interstate (thus limiting you to 35-45mph). You say "eh, I'll sleep on it" and come back 2 days later. This time he limits you to going around the block.

      I don't know about you, but I play demos once, maybe twice. This is to prevent people playing demos repeatedly and not buying the game. See Zero Punctuation and mirror's edge (?). He says something to the effect of "Just play the demo repeatedly and you'll have the game." It's to stop stuff like that.

      Besides, couldn't you just reinstall the demo? Delete the demo and delete your game save and redownload it (sorry for people with sucky internet connections). Thus your demo will be renewed. If you're willing to go through that hassle, fine keep playing the demo without buying the full game. I think a lot of consumers will be buying the game.

      For Gamestop and other kiosks I suspect Sony will give them special demos that don't degrade if Sony ends up implementing this (regardless of whether or not they get the patent).

    6. Re:What's the problem? by gumbi+west · · Score: 4, Funny
      This post made me think that one really should be able to mod +1 quality car analogy.

      But then we'd need -1 bad car analogy, and -1 stupid nit pick on car analogy.

    7. Re:What's the problem? by don_combatant · · Score: 2, Funny

      I think Star Wars Galaxies was the first application of their feature erosion technology.

    8. Re:What's the problem? by Idarubicin · · Score: 2, Insightful

      No one is "giving" you anything, they are allowing you to test drive it, that is all. So, for the car analogy, you go to the Ford dealership to test drive a car. After the first mile, it won't go over 30. After 3 miles, it won't go over 20. After 5 miles, it will only idle, forcing you to pull over.

      And Silly Car Analogy of the Year goes to....

      One alternative, the time-limited trial, lets you drive with full features until the drop-dead date -- at which point the engine stops, the steering locks, the doors latch, the radio goes out, and you're riding a dead lump of steel down the highway at full speed. A red light on the dash comes on, informing you that you should contact the Ford dealership immediately if you want to continue your driving experience.

      Another alternative, the feature-limited (or sample-level) trial, lets you test drive the vehicle for as long as you want, as long as you never go more than a hundred yards from the dealership and don't exceed 10 miles per hour. If you try to go beyond the 100-yard barrier, the car automatically turns around, and the in-dash display plays a Ford advertisement.

      It turns out that when you express any free trial as a car analogy, it always sounds stupid and annoying.

      --
      ~Idarubicin
    9. Re:What's the problem? by couchslug · · Score: 3, Funny

      "The concept of doing this gradually over time seems, if anything, more humane."

      Feature erosion is common in marriage. One gets used to it over time...

      --
      "This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
    10. Re:What's the problem? by rolfwind · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Which one is more humane?

      Oh, please, we're talking about a fucking video game. Not about someone starving to death or losing their dignity in some way.

    11. Re:What's the problem? by Somebody+Is+Using+My · · Score: 2, Informative

      Possibly you are thinking about the FADE, used first in Operation Flashpoint.

      http://www.gameburnworld.com/protections_fade.shtml (first link on Google)

      Like most DRM, it apparently has been circumvented.

  2. The 'Hood by bsDaemon · · Score: 4, Funny

    Don't crack dealers have prior art on this business model?

    1. Re:The 'Hood by cormander · · Score: 2, Funny

      You're making the assumption that computer games are addictive. I can stop anytime I want.

  3. This was tested recently by David+Gerard · · Score: 4, Funny

    Didn't Sony recently try just this with the PS3?

    Microsoft, of course, has done this with the Xbox 360 for a while. "Feature erosion" produces fans so dedicated, some are onto their second or third 360!

    --
    http://rocknerd.co.uk
  4. Lucky Sony patented it by Ma8thew · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm glad Sony have patented this. I don't buy Sony products, and no one else will be allowed to implement this.

    1. Re:Lucky Sony patented it by Nerdfest · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I don't buy their products either, but this doesn't seem like that bad of an idea from a consumer point of view as opposed to a demo being disabled completely. From a game vendor point of view it might be a bit dangerous if a person does not know that a feature has been disabled in the demo because of time constraints ... he might just think the game was broken, or just plain sucked. You would have to make it very obvious that the feature was removed, not just missing, and the reason for it. There are also a limited set of things this could be applied to without rendering a demo completely pointless.

      Of course, it will also become a sport to see who can finish the demo completely in the allotted time.

    2. Re:Lucky Sony patented it by Wuhao · · Score: 2, Informative

      I'm glad Sony have patented this. I don't buy Sony products, and no one else will be allowed to implement this.

      Unless they license it.

  5. Better Yet by Rivalz · · Score: 2, Funny

    Hook up electrodes to the controllers that at the same time offer gradually increasing levels of electrocution and let us absorb nicotine through our skin. Only way to play without risk of death or any pesky side effects of severe electroshock is to buy the game. Of course that means the PS3 or PS4 will once again require more power and downgrade controllers from being wireless to wired but its the best thing for the sake of progress.

  6. Re:Unshareware by fbjon · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It doesn't have to be silent degradation. Imagine a pop-up notification: "You have just lost 2000 XP and your +3 armor of wisdom, buy the game to regain them!", or "All injuries will now become instant headshots, this won't happen if you buy the game!".

    --
    True confidence comes not from realising you are as good as your peers, but that your peers are as bad as you are.
  7. Missing the point? by WhatDoIKnow · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I think the larger issue is not whether this is a good idea for a game demo, but why is an idea at this level of abstraction even patentable?

  8. It's already being done. by naztafari · · Score: 2, Informative

    Game demos with feature erosion have been around for a long time in the form of developers gimping pirated versions of games or making them uncompletable/unplayable/play-hostile.

    For example, in Batman: Arkham Asylum, some pirated versions would have Batman's Gliding move disabled. In Grand Theft Auto IV, pirated versions would have gravity suddenly go berserk, and with the Penny Arcade On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness game, pirated versions would be rendered uncompletable by a glitch.

    Since some people "try/demo" games using the pirated versions, you could say that what Sony is trying to patent has already been done.

  9. Prior art... by DevConcepts · · Score: 2, Funny

    Windows has had "Feature Erosion" since 1995...