This news broke earlier today on GameDeveloper.com that Stadis testing mission based free trials. It looks like Stadia is testing a new way to limit Trials. Stadia is nearing 150 free trials on its platform where prospective players can test out a game in the browser with just a click of the mouse. For now, these trials have been limited to a certain amount of time – typically between 30 minutes and two hours.
The problem with time-limits is that the amount of the game different players get to experience could widely vary. Very advanced players might make significant progress in a game and less-advanced players might spend their entire time allocation stuck at the beginning.
Rather than limiting the trials to a certain time, Stadia is now testing a system in which trials are limited to a specific mission or in-game achievement. This new test starting with two games Sniper Elite 4 and Control.
Update: the source article clarified that, for the first two games, there are actually both a mission and time limit. Presumably, though, the mission based limit give developers confidence to add a longer time limit than they otherwise would.
The Sniper Elite team described their goals as follows:
“We want new players to experience the ‘observe…plan… execute…’ mantra that sits behind the game. You can run and gun if you want to, but the best results tend to come from considering your options and planning your attack accordingly.”
Stadia is rolling this out in an A/B test type fashion. So, 50% of users trialing the game will see the typical time based limit, while the other 50% will see this new mission based trial.
Stadia senior product manager Karan Arora also commented about some of the future of Stadia mission based trials.
“Giving development teams an effective opportunity to hone in on those impactful, memorable moments with new players is an exciting experiment for us,” he said, “especially when it takes zero effort for the developer to switch on.”
“Imagine trying an RPG and starting at Level 100 instead of Level 1 – or playing a turn-based strategy game with a full kingdom at your bidding instead of starting with just a small village”
You can see every game that has a free trial on Stadia on our list of games. What do you think of this new feature? Is this an improvement over the time based trial system for you?
