Tuesday, May 16th 2023
Play Before You Pay: Steam Allows 90-Minute Gameplay Before Purchasing a Game
For gamers that ended up buying massively hyped games and found them to be quite disappointing, Valve is there to help. Valve's Steam will now allow gamers to play games for free for up to 90 minutes before forcing them to either pay to continue playing or end the game there. Starting with the new Dead Space Remake, gamers will be able to enjoy the first 90 minutes of gameplay without committing any funds towards the purchase of the game. Given that today's AAA titles can cost 59.99+ USD, this is an excellent choice for gamers wanting to try out the game before purchasing to finish the gameplay.
The new measure is already available to gamers on Steam, as the Dead Space Remake is the first to kick off the wave of 90-minute trials. Previously available for 59.99 USD, the game is on a 20% discount until May 29 and can be had for 47.99. We need to find out if more games will support this policy of free trials or if Steam will force some titles to do the same. Valve's older measures, such as refunds, are still in place; however, refunds require less than two hours of the game being played, so a refund can be valid.
Sources:
Steam, via HardwareLuxx
The new measure is already available to gamers on Steam, as the Dead Space Remake is the first to kick off the wave of 90-minute trials. Previously available for 59.99 USD, the game is on a 20% discount until May 29 and can be had for 47.99. We need to find out if more games will support this policy of free trials or if Steam will force some titles to do the same. Valve's older measures, such as refunds, are still in place; however, refunds require less than two hours of the game being played, so a refund can be valid.
83 Comments on Play Before You Pay: Steam Allows 90-Minute Gameplay Before Purchasing a Game
When things get sour in a game studio, it's not unheard of for talented devs to quit because they value their mental health more than working at a shit company. There are many reports of Blizzard losing great people because they had enough of the management.
If anything, those 90min are now a great way to reduce the influx of money that a badly managed game will get. It's often enough to see if there's a myriad of technical issues, or if the game just feels bad. 24H will heavily punish linear games or casual games from less scrupulous people
Now, most would say 90 minutes is not nearly enough, and I agree, 30 minutes just tweaking settings, 15 minutes cutscenes, and 20 minutes tutorial and your done. But it's still better than having to pay for it, it's still better than nothing, there still isn't a downside. So why vote "No" ?
If a person can afford and pays, then a person plays 90 mins and covers most of the game, they feel that 90 mins free would be giving the other person something they don't have. Yes even when they too could have used the free 90mins too.
Ego and narcissism, never underestimate how many people are this petty.
The Steam forums are littered with literal idiots to begin with also, most of the so called player base are not old enough to have fully developed prefrontal cortex yet.
The moderators are also power trippers who don't understand what arbitrary rules mean so they can be enforced even against innocent people.
Best to just take it as you can.
Kinda reminds me of when you could go to your local video store and rent video games for a few days - if me or my dad liked the game(s) we rented, we'd usually end up purchasing them at Toys R Us.
Although, that's when my exchange rate meant a new AAA game cost about the same as a week's worth of food. Now it's the same as 2.5-3 weeks' worth of food, even though the $ price hasn't really changed. Essentially it's an import, which for some countries makes the $ price too unbearable. I'm really grateful for subscriptions.
hey let me drive that escalade for a decade and if I like it i'll pay.
Let me guess, you start playing (presumedly at the start of the game) then you get to the point where it gets interesting and then you get cut off. What do you do??
At the start of most games, this is where all the game play and story lines start getting interesting so great sales pitch if you ask me.
Maybe 10 mins of work for another free 90 mins.
A person dedicated enough only needs about 8 email addresses linked to unique accounts and will switch between them to finsh a game to completion.
To avoid not being able to play the game fully within 8 accounts they simply find out the average play time for a game and decide.
A song I love.
Truth is all decisions have a shadow side, good vs bad, whilst Ilike this system, if you are a moral person (Made up to only serve the self), the opposite exists (To serve the self), you need to accept it.
A human limitation, we are not intelligent enough to overcome.
and no, I didn't buy that turd.
And a company can sell a broken car, ever heard of Renault? free 60 min trial then breaks down lol