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Steam is now apparently offering Timed Trials of Full Releases
- Thread starter dex3108
- Start date
I'd imagine this is up to the publisher and developer. So if it's a shitty port, chances are this won't be offered.
On the other hand, the only game to offer this right now is Dead Space, which is a shitty port.
You have to trust your customers.
Same is true for refunds, technically you can go offline, refund, and then complete game before going offline.
(This may even beat Denuvo, unless you get hit with verification)
Thats pretty good way to deal with that actually. Its a cool feature on its own but nice for people still apprehensive about putting money down only to have to refund because of performance issues.
Crazy how much stuff we have on PC/Steam that is paid on consoles.
Heck yeah. They just keep improving Steam with tons of features which directly helps my PC and my Deck. I still wish Ms would release Gamepass on Steam. Heck, keep the Xbox launcher even though it sucks, I just want the features of Steam to go with it.
I've only refunded 1 game and that's because it was free on Epic the very next day. I hope this comes to almost all games eventually. Trials/demos always helps me decide if I like the game or not.
I know Dead Space is the only game with this as of right now, but my question going forward would be with these trials and their ongoing refund system would time played on the trial count towards your 2 hours refund time? Obviously this is meant to reduce refunds in the first place but I could imagine you do a trial and 90 minutes not being enough to know either way if a game is for you. So you buy it to play further and only getting another 30 minutes and then not being able to refund it would suck.
Really curious if the publisher has any say in this. I think many won't allow this if they have.
This is 100% up to the publisher.
Mandatory demos will never happen on Steam unless there's some legal precedent set in some country that Steam operates in.
This doesn't mean that this option offers nothing for customers; the generalized best benefit of a system wide trial OPTION like this is that it removes the disincentive for publishers and developers to make a bespoke demo, with all the time and risk associated therein. The trial demo is automatically updated the same way the base game is updated (so the developer doesn't have to maintain multiple builds or have the demo not be indictative of the real game's features and performance). Since this trial demo is just the game itself, and a checkbox on the Steam release, it's one less impediment in the way of a company deciding whether or not they want to offer a demo.
Additionally, this type of demo is excellent for customers, as I would guess that any progress they make in the trial would carry over into a purchased copy of a game, so no need to feel like they "spoiled" themselves on the full product or wasted their time having to do things twice.
I'd imagine the trial counts toward your refund time since you're playing the full game but for a limited time.
Yep, not on is it. At some point PlayStation need to start offering some kind of refund system or/and have timed demos free.
I'm honestly still extremely sad Geforce Now didn't pan out. The ability to rent hardware to stream games you own etc, was IMO the best option for game streaming. All the stuff around game license and access is really just a garbage mess for consumers.
I mean the ability to stream the games you owned with out the publishers approval.
Oh you meant all games, if I could stream all my steam games I would be subbed to the highest tier of GeForce now
Seems to work well. You can't launch the game when offline, so it blocks that potential exploit.
It was enough for me to see that Dead Space (2023) actually runs quite well on my PC - but suffers from real bad loading stutters.
It also confirmed my thoughts on it being a game that never really needed a remake, and that I don't like many of their changes (being forced to slow walk while the crew tells me to hurry up, adding in extra animations/flourishes that just waste time, etc).
Yeah, I know we technically bought a limited license to play the game rather than "owning" anything, but that doesn't have to make it legal.
Frankly, you should be able to buy a game once and use that license on any platform (Steam, Epic, PlayStation, Xbox, etc).
But letting you log into your Steam account on a cloud platform like GeForce Now and play anything in your library seems like a far easier thing to enforce.
It was enough for me to see that Dead Space (2023) actually runs quite well on my PC - but suffers from real bad loading stutters.
It also confirmed my thoughts on it being a game that never really needed a remake, and that I don't like many of their changes (being forced to slow walk while the crew tells me to hurry up, adding in extra animations/flourishes that just waste time, etc).
I'm hoping at some point an entity like the EU steps in, because if we own the game, we should be able to play it wherever we choose.
Yeah, I know we technically bought a limited license to play the game rather than "owning" anything, but that doesn't have to make it legal.
Frankly, you should be able to buy a game once and use that license on any platform (Steam, Epic, PlayStation, Xbox, etc).
But letting you log into your Steam account on a cloud platform like GeForce Now and play anything in your library seems like a far easier thing to enforce.
Sadly EU is heavily lobbied by copyright industry, so likely this won't happen.
