Video game demos have often been used as a great way to market games. David Perry, in his recent speech at the [a]list summit, said that's because consumers in general usually enjoy shopping with a "try before you buy" mentality, whether in-store or online. And this mentality is why he's so excited about Gaikai, because anyone can try any game for free with just one click. Then they can seamlessly transition into a full purchase if they want to.
With that concept in mind, Perry said he was really scratching his head when he learned about a patent from Sony earlier this year. The patent described a way for Sony to make game demos fully degradable, which would mean game features would be stripped out over time.
As far as we know, Sony has not implemented this patent in any actual demos, and maybe the feedback they've received just hasn't been positive. Perry labeled the patent complete "garbage." He asked Sony, "Have you lost your minds?"
For more on the Gaikai business model, please read the whole summary on [a]listdaily.
1 Comments
August 11, 2010
I remember that original story. It's not that Sony has lost their minds(well for other things they have but not this), it's just that they wanted to try a different approach to get their consumers to stop playing a favored demo and to step up to the full game experience.
I'm surprised they haven't started using this technique in either their PS3 or PSP demos yet. It's definitely going to be a unique experiment.