Great point in the bolded. I also think "secretly" this is motivation for Sony to get more gamers to buy games digitally too. I'm not sure how publishers will feel about the scenario that you just brought up. I'd like to know (we will NEVER know), how many gamers would play the digital game trial and then buy the game physically.
It has to be less than 10% right?
Honestly wouldn't know, myself. Maybe
R
reksveks
or
Heisenberg007
would have that type of data on them. I'd have to scavenge through a ton of links to maybe find it and time as short

.
Myself personally, I would probably take that option but only because my internet has a data cap and I wouldn't want to risk spilling over that cap on large game downloads (the bandwidth itself isn't an issue tho neither is connection (now) thanks to them coming out to repair the node in the area....love taking it directly up to the supervisor cuts past the BS).
I really don't think Sony are or will be providing incentive to publishers to post trials; I think they will just use their position as market leader and influence. I mean for a company that charges publishers for enabling crossplay, I really don't see them parting away with ith money.
Almost tempted to think this is the case, at least for now, and I'm not exactly sure how well it would hold out in the longer term. Technically speaking, Sony has enjoyed a large marketshare advantage over Microsoft, and while Nintendo tends to do as well if not better than Sony in total units sold, they are also in a much different segment and not directly comparable.
But I also can't ignore that, at least so far this year, MS's been getting more Series systems out there than Sony has PS5s. Those are facts, and due to that whatever unit sales gap there was earlier between the two has been shrinking, however gradually or by any whatever amount. If that for whatever reason, by whatever means, continues, then Sony may not be able to leverage that marketshare advantage on its own. They would need to provide some type of financial incentive as well.
So are we on board for a win for consumers or nah?
Yeah in totality this is a net benefit for players mainly those on PS+ Premium. But I do understand
some of the concerns, too. Also it's kind of wild to consider we
might be finding out about this ahead of 3P partners!
That's why I find this interesting. I wonder if anyone complains enough or stands up to Playstation here. I agree they do have a choice, but it is a choice that is being forced onto them and not one that they would like to make.
I am off to play Road 96 anyways.
It would be damning if a publisher like Take Two, EA or Ubisoft came out against it. But that likely won't happen...unless one of them (cough, Ubisoft) might just happen to be acquired by a certain other platform holder.
Because coming out publicly against it would likely erode some business relations between Sony and that particular publisher. They could even improve the terms for other 3P partners and shut out the one who comes out against it critically, partially out of spite. But before any of that, I think the idea itself needs to be given a fair chance to see how it works out, and there are probably other details both public-facing and privately behind-the-scenes we aren't even privy of which could
really get 3P partners incentivized to be onboard.
First off I don't see how this will be for more games when there is a price limit near $60. Secondly Game pass is a paid service that gets you access to complete games without a 2 hour time limit. Third Game pass is completely voluntary and devs are compensated for being on the service. I don't think paid trials and Game pass are the same thing at all.
How do we know 3P partners are not being compensated for providing the trails? There are probably more details to this than have been mentioned so far, I wouldn't be surprised if there is a financial incentive and the easiest would be to just reduce the 30% cut by 5% or 10% for the first 500K - 1 million units sold.
Which, since these are mainly for AAA games anyway, gives a good incentive for 3P publishers and good buffer for Sony on the money side, since almost all AAA games do at least 2 million copies these days, if not WAY more than that.