Sony reportedly requiring timed trials for games over $34

By Billy Givens April 26, 2022

According to a new report, Sony is currently informing its developers about a new rule that will require all games over $34 to have a timed trial for PlayStation Plus Premium subscribers.

While we previously knew very little about how the way PlayStation Plus Premium trials would work, sources have told Game Developer that any game over the threshold will be required to include a trial that lasts a minimum of two hours. The change is not retroactive, nor does it apply to VR-specific titles, but developers releasing games on PlayStation 5 in the future will now need to allot time and resources to create these trials.

Developers will have up to three months after the launch of a game to bring a timed trial to PlayStation Plus Premium members, and it’s required to be available for at least 12 months. While Sony has expressed a willingness to be flexible and allow custom game demos in place of the trials, the company will approve such options on a case-by-case basis. Developers can also still opt to create demos, trials, and free weekend access periods that can be accessed by all PlayStation Plus subscribers regardless of tier.

Premium is the third and highest tier of Sony’s upcoming PlayStation Plus revamp and will include everything in the previous two tiers alongside a selection of retro PlayStation titles and the aforementioned timed trials. Sony recently revealed when players will be able to upgrade to the two new tiers of PlayStation Plus, including a targeted date of June 13 for those in the Americas.

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Billy Givens is a freelance writer with over a decade of experience writing gaming, film, and tech content. His work can be…

Gaming

PlayStation Portal misunderstands remote play and cloud gaming’s appeal

A PlayStation Portal boots up.

Sony finally revealed more details about its upcoming handheld, now called PlayStation Portal, but these announcements have soured my opinion on the device rather than hyped me up for it. I enjoy cloud gaming and have used a variety of services like Google Stadia, Amazon Luna, and Xbox Cloud Gaming - across my phone and even dedicated devices like the Logitech G Cloud Gaming Handheld. Because of that, I was really excited to see what PlayStation could do as it entered the space. Unfortunately, some specific exclusions from PlayStation Portal's functionality that make it more of a remote-play device rather than a cloud gaming handheld indicate that Sony has a fundamental misunderstanding about what people would want out of a PlayStation game streaming handheld.

Namely, the device's positioning as primarily a "remote play dedicated device" and the exclusion of PlayStation Plus Premium cloud gaming compatibility drastically shrinks the number of reasons people should pick the device up. Cloud gaming and devices built around it have been around long enough to show that an inclusive approach to the number of services, games, and kinds of game streaming available is vital to success, and for a $200 handheld, PlayStation Portal seems like it's excluding way too much.
Narrowing its appeal
Remote play differs from what's more ubiquitously referred to as cloud gaming players are running the games on their own consoles rather than a third-party console or server. Still, it's a form of streaming games over a Wi-Fi connection, typically through an app on a phone or device like the Logitech G Cloud Gaming Handheld. That means you'll have to stick around your own home to use the PlayStation Portal, and its game library is limited to whatever the user owns on the console. That's limiting (it's like if Steam Deck only ran Steam Link) but does have some use cases. Still, it doesn't necessarily feel like it warrants a dedicated $200 device over a phone and a nice mobile controller like the Razer Kishi V2 or Backbone One - PlayStation Edition; haptic feedback and adaptive triggers only go so far.

Gaming

Sony’s cloud handheld, the PlayStation Portal, will only stream certain games

Astro's Playroom booting up on the PlayStation Portal.

Sony has unveiled the price for its upcoming cloud gaming handheld, as well as an official name for the device: PlayStation Portal. However, one significant caveat to its functionality might sour people's interest in the handheld: It only supports PS4 and PS5 native games that the owner purchased.
PlayStation VR2 games can't be streamed to PlayStation Portal, which does make sense. More bafflingly, though, is the fact that the PlayStation Blog post states that "games that are streamed through PlayStation Plus Premium’s cloud streaming are not supported." That means you shouldn't pick up PlayStation Portal expecting to stream some PS3 and PS4 games available through PlayStation Plus Premium to the device. That's certainly an odd omission when it's currently PlayStation's most notable cloud gaming effort.
Although Microsoft is more closely associated with cloud gaming, Sony beat it to releasing a dedicated cloud gaming device. PlayStation Portal was first teased as Project Q during May's PlayStation showcase, but now, a PlayStation Blog post more clearly explains what we can actually expect from the handheld. Most importantly, we learned that PlayStation Portal will cost $200, which puts it underneath the cost of a Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series S, and other cloud gaming devices like the Logitech G Cloud Handheld.
As for what you're getting for that price tag, it's essentially a decent screen attached to two halves of a DualSense controller. The controllers on each side share all the functionality of the DualSense, including things like haptic feedback and adaptive triggers. In-between is an 8-inch LCD screen that streams games over Wi-Fi at up to a 1080p resolution and 60 frames per second. All in all, that's fairly solid for a cloud gaming handheld that is this cheap.
Sony confirmed that the PlayStation Portal will have a 3.5mm audio jack, but also used the same blog post to unveil two new wireless audio options. There's the Pulse Elite wireless headset that features a retractable boom mic and a charging hanger and Pulse Explore wireless earbuds that offer similar audio quality in earbud form.
None of these products are available for preorder or have a specific release date just yet, but they are all expected to launch before the end of the year.

Gaming

Does PlayStation 5 have a web browser?

Playstation 5 with a controller.

We live in an era where basically every device in our homes can connect to the internet in some way, and most of them can provide in-depth searching through apps and web browsers. The previous generation of consoles was included in this modern experience, and even the Xbox Series X features full-fledged web browsing – but for those who have purchased a PlayStation 5, the situation is a little bit more complicated.
Does the PS5 have a web browser?
The PS5 does not have a traditional web browser in the way that the PS4 did, meaning users can't quickly pull up websites and surf the net with ease. This is no doubt a frustrating omission for those used to accessing the web from their previous consoles, and it's honestly a bit strange that Sony chose to leave out such a useful feature. However, while you may not be able to pull up a browser from your main menu, there is technically a workaround to gain access to an extremely limited web browser by finagling with the Twitter linking function in your settings, but it's an awful lot of trouble to go through for something that doesn't really function in a way that users can actually benefit from.

Unfortunately, Sony doesn't seem to want to add an official web browser app to the PS5, as the company has expressed on various occasions that it doesn't feel that such functionality is important for gaming consoles. So, if you're in the PlayStation ecosystem, it appears that your web browsing will have to continue exclusively on your old PS4. It's a bummer, but hey, maybe you could try getting one of those refrigerators with web functionality.