PC game downloads can be a bit of a gamble. We have seen more than our share of poorly optimized releases. We can even look back at some of the more recent big launch titles like Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, which proved problematic at launch for various PC system configurations. Normally, developers are rather quick in making updates to ensure that they run as intended for the platform. But that doesn’t make it any less frustrating for players who purchase the game to enjoy it right away.
Fortunately, thanks to WCCFTech we’re finding a new feature on Steam might change that and ease those headaches. It looks like Steam is bringing out 90-minute trials to games. Right now, the trial is only implemented in Dead Space Remake. But this could be a feature we see added into the mix for a variety of video games going forward. If that’s the case, then we imagine this would be a more than welcomed and used feature for consumers. Overall, that would further allow the consumers unhappy with their purchase to save money and not have to deal with a refund.
Normally, you have a small window of time before you can request a refund. This trial, which doesn’t appear to limit anything for the game, would mean that players could try a good section of the opening moments out before deciding if it’s worth their money. That will allow some players to try a title out if it’s a new release just to see if it’s capable of running on their PC. However, right now, it’s a waiting game to see if other titles will receive the same treatment.
Now this would also likely come to games at launch, so you might lose out on the preloading feature if you don’t preorder the game. So with all that said, it will come down to whether you want to risk the game purchase to ensure it’s downloaded and ready to go at launch or if you would rather play it safe and see if the game is optimized enough to go through.
Fortunately, the 90 minutes gameplay trial is long enough to tell if you’ll enjoy the game and if it’s going to run into any immediate problematic issues that would prevent you from progressing. Of course, I’m sure there are plenty of speedrunners out there that would love these new challenges to see if they could potentially complete a game from its game trial alone.
