Xbox One now supports trial and unlock game demos


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http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-07-11-xbox-one-now-supports-trial-and-unlock-game-demos

 

 

Look on the Xbox One store and you still won't find many game demos. It's something users have asked Microsoft to encourage, and it sounds like Microsoft is listening.

Microsoft has recently updated the console with the same game trial functionality found on Xbox 360 - where you can download an Xbox Live Arcade title as a free demo and then pay to unlock the full version without downloading the game again. It's not something any available games currently make use of, but future titles are free to.

 

"When Xbox One launched you could do game demos and you could do games. But we didn't have the functionality that was on Xbox 360 - that 'trial' experience where you could download a demo and then convert it [to a full version]," Microsoft's ID@Xbox boss Chris Charla has told Eurogamer.

 

"But now we do. In the same way that we update the Xbox One OS every month, they update the development system every month - or regularly, anyway. So that's something that we recently turned on. I don't think we've seen any ID@Xbox games yet that have shipped with trials, but we may well in the future. It's something that's open to everybody."

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Very welcome with the smaller games, a little go for me would make me way more inclined to buy if I enjoyed it.

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This helps get those impulse buys since they'll just hit "buy" and have it ready without waiting.  If they have to red/l a full game again then the wait could turn them off, at least a % of them that don't want to wait and redownload things.

 

Now we just need to be able to pre-load digital games like on Steam and that'd be another big feature out of the way.

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They are pushing forward at a good pace bringing back what worked so well on the 360 while also adding new features. They just have to keep that up.

Hopefully they make it compulsory in future like XBLA

I hope so too, but there is a risk of developer backlash when you start forcing anything, so they have to be careful.

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I hope so too, but there is a risk of developer backlash when you start forcing anything, so they have to be careful.

 

Considering many of them are still coming to 360's XBLA, I find that unlikely. Especially when most have been doing it for almost 9 yrs.

 

Like they say, it's the same file you'd be downloading. They just need to add an unlock mechanism after however much access they want to give.

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Another good step but I hope they sort out how its all displayed soon. I very rarely go into the "games" section because I find it a massive confusing mess. Saying that, i haven't touched my Xbox in weeks so for all I know, they have.

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There needs to be more demos for full on-demand games too. Several times I've had to buy a game only to not like it or it be full of bugs, I've then had to use Xbox chat support and demand a refund, then wait up to 8 days for a refund. I really wanna buy GRID: Autosport, but there's no demo, so my next cheapest option is renting it for a couple days.

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This feature is very good... But also very dangerous... Trial unlock has contributed to quite a few games in my 360 library.

Tread carefully fellow gamers. For "Trial Unlock" isn't for the weak, it takes great concentration and control to wield its power.

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Considering many of them are still coming to 360's XBLA, I find that unlikely. Especially when most have been doing it for almost 9 yrs.

 

Like they say, it's the same file you'd be downloading. They just need to add an unlock mechanism after however much access they want to give.

That is true, but if it developers were so happy to add that option, then there would be no need for a requirement by MS at all.

Its like the demo situation. MS removed the requirement that games had to have a demo and then suddenly, developers stopped making demos in large numbers. I'm not sure what the developer reaction would be if they tried to reinstate that. MS has to play nice with them.

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That is true, but if it developers were so happy to add that option, then there would be no need for a requirement by MS at all.

Its like the demo situation. MS removed the requirement that games had to have a demo and then suddenly, developers stopped making demos in large numbers. I'm not sure what the developer reaction would be if they tried to reinstate that. MS has to play nice with them.

 

There was never a requirement for demos, only trials. That's why this news is only 50/50 on the good side, great that X1 now supports them, bad because it's still in devs hands if they want to.

 

But now that you mention them, developers didn't have any obligation to make demos, but of course many of them did. In their eyes it can make or break your game, but for us as consumers we should all want it to be a requirement. The #1 reason I don't have a large PSN library is because the PS3 doesn't support them. They obviously came up with their own version via PS+ but it's not good enough. I'm not even sure the PS4 supports them, but IMO it was one of the biggest strengths XBLA had. There has been so many games I've passed on or waited to be on sale/included in PS+ because they didn't offer them.

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There was never a requirement for demos, only trials. That's why this news is only 50/50 on the good side, great that X1 now supports them, bad because it's still in devs hands if they want to.

 

But now that you mention them, developers didn't have any obligation to make demos, but of course many of them did. In their eyes it can make or break your game, but for us as consumers we should all want it to be a requirement. The #1 reason I don't have a large PSN library is because the PS3 doesn't support them. They obviously came up with their own version via PS+ but it's not good enough. I'm not even sure the PS4 supports them, but IMO it was one of the biggest strengths XBLA had. There has been so many games I've passed on or waited to be on sale/included in PS+ because they didn't offer them.

Very true, I agree.

But it hasn't ever been a huge hangup for most people even though it most definitely be in the consumer's favor if developer did provide that trial/demo experience. People may talk about it, but most are not as serious about it as say you are.

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