Sony appears to be reintroducing an old concept for two of its newer Playstation 5 games — game trials. Sony will now let you try the PS5 versions of Death Stranding: Director’s Cut and Sackboy: A Big Adventure for free if you live in the United Kingdom, for six hours and five hours, respectively.

PlayStation owners first spotted Sony’s new offer via email. “Ever wanted to try some of the most popular games from PlayStation Studios before committing to the full game? Now you can,” the email reads. Sony says the games are redeemable on the PlayStation Store until October 28th at 11:59PM, and the trial starts as soon as you select “Download Trial” on console or “Add to Library” on the web. The Verge has reached out to Sony for more information, but if you’re in the UK, both the Death Stranding trial and Sackboy trial appear to already be live.

Image: @_wotta

Ten or more years ago, offering a demo for a big blockbuster game wouldn’t be too unusual, but it seems in the last decade, the rise of free-to-play systems, public betas, and a robust Let’s Play community has sort of driven the “free trial” to partial extinction. That’s started to change yet again — PC Gamer has a great piece trying to think through why — and it seems now Sony is dipping its toes in the water with two of its more recent first-party titles. Hopefully. that expands to more games and more regions soon.

https://www.theverge.com/2021/10/1/22704743/sony-ps5-free-game-trials-death-stranding-sackboy