172w ago - Similar to what was done with PSN titles including Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars, a recent patent filing by Sony has been found for a new demo system that slowly degrades the game as it is played.
Essentially this means the more hours you put into a downloaded PSP or PS3 demo, the more the demo's gameplay diminishes.
For example, as you continue to play a video game demo, your weapons might decrease in value (size, quality, etc.). It's essentially a system that adds a time limit to a demo.
This new system is reportedly going to help people make the decision to buy the actual game instead of continuously playing the demo. Whether that will work or not is questionable.
To quote: "In one scenario your weapon is weakened or replaced with a less powerful one after so many hours playing the game. Think of it as a timed level down.
Another idea Sony has is to remove levels, race tracks in this example, after you reach a certain number of plays. When you finally buy the game (bottom right) you can use all of the tracks again."
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this idea is obviously driven more by greed than any other factor. it's not like developers are losing any money by consumers playing demos for an infinite amount of time, as they are payed in installments by a publisher as the game is being developed. publishers are also not losing any money by consumers playing demos indefinitely. they are not making any more money from demos as they are now, but they are not losing any money. it's not like people are hacking/cracking demos to get the full version of games without paying for them.
hopefully it will be up to the developers whether they put self destructive qualities in their demos or not. if it becomes mandated by sony, i for one will not be downloading any more demos. i know that one person doing a solo boycott will not change anything, however i stand up to my principles no matter how unpopular or how few other people agree with me.