Ever feel like you just didn’t have enough time with your game demos to really get a feel for whatever game you are demoing. We have, unfortunately, but we suppose that all goes along with the marketing train. However, Sony has stated that they will be revolutionizing the way people look at game demos. Instead of giving us only a portion of the game that ends after you complete it, Sony’s new degradable model will allow the full game to be available from the get go and will slowly remove content over time. Supposedly, this will give gamers a better feel for the content of the game and will encourage them to purchase the game as their favorite aspects are slowly closed off to them. It’s kind of like charging more for the second hit as a drug dealer … not that we know anything about that sort of thing.

They outlined the model with several different examples. In the case of adventure or action games, the player would have full access to every weapon in the game at the start, but as the game continues their weapon choice will become more limited and less powerful. In their figure, they detailed the 0-3 hour mark as being a total game, while 6+ hours would give the gamer a seriously limited experience.

Another provided example came in the form of a racing game demo. In the beginning every track and car would be available, and after each race another race and car would become locked. This was meant to show that the rate at which the demo locks could be based on actions performed in the demo itself, rather than the amount of time that has transpired.

Of course, this new model also has its own problems. First and foremost, this model doesn’t actually accomplish all that much. No one can complete an action game in a mere 6 hours, especially without upgraded equipment or stats. All that this model is doing is locking out the later levels of the game just as before, except it is using difficulty and time to do so rather than using an arbitrary “game over” point. The racing model would only allow gamers to experience the whole game if they played tracks specifically in the order that they lock. Gamers still wouldn’t be able to “experience the whole game” they are just getting the same limited experience in the disguise of a full product.

Even worse, this opens up the floodgates for a whole new wave of piracy. Many PC games follow this model, distributing the whole game and simply locking out other features until a full version is bought. However, it takes relatively little effort to download a crack and replace a few files to turn a free demo into a full working product. By distributing full products as demos, developers are basically giving gamers all that they need to play the full game, and assuming that whatever software they have included to lock the game down will work perfectly. Giving potential hackers access to full game data will make cracking and distribution easier than ever.

Not only that, but this model extends itself to subtler differences. The Sony patent extends to decreasing color depth and brightness, slowing down gameplay, decreasing graphical quality, softening or reducing quality of sound and music, and, we guess, can be extended to making the game intentionally glitch. So basically they have the ability to make a game nigh unplayable until you buy the damn thing. It’s a yet more annoying nag screen model, except this model is filled with shitty sound and graphics and other intentional glitches.

This will also make demos absolutely humongous. What was originally a 1GB download will now be a 10, 20, or even 40GB download, which will take forever even on high speed networks and will take up a pretty impressive chunk of most gamers’ hard-drive space. In fact, gamers with older PS3s will be lucky if the have space for even one. The other option is to return demos to physical media, however Sony has not yet stated how they would plan to distribute the physical media. Video game magazines are nowhere near as popular as they used to be and there appears to be no way to reliably distribute DVD media for free throughout a large user base. In addition, if demos would be distributed on DVD, it means that the “full version” of a Sony game may not come with a case or instruction manual, as it was originally a demo.

The model seems like it has more flaws than advantages. Some critics are saying that this will be a great way for developers to surpass current demo limitations. We, personally, believe that this model is pretty much doomed to fail due to piracy and distribution problems and plain old gamer frustration. What do you think? [Siliconera]

Related posts on 30ninjas.com:

• Sony Puts PSP Dev Kit Out to Pasture
• Sony Reveals Playstation Wii … I Mean Move
• Sony Says Disks Have a Long Life Ahead of Them
• Sony Offers Up Playstation Move Bundles
• Sony Blocks Unlicenced Controllers
• Sony Explores Same Screen Multiplayer