Original Link: https://www.anandtech.com/show/1706



Introduction

One of the less-talked hyped aspects of the modern graphics card purchase is the software bundle. Almost an "icing on the cake" kind of thing, people's decisions are usually swayed by other factors. Often times, games included are already owned by the consumer and are all but a waste.



In order to make the software bundle a little more compelling (without losing money by including all the latest games), Sapphire has adopted a new technology that allows customers to try any of a number of games for an hour each. After the trial period, the user can select which titles he or she wants. Sapphire will include a code that allows users to unlock a game or two for free, but all the rest of the titles included will be available for purchase (unlocking) online.

This allows the user the freedom to choose which games come with their graphics card, as well as gives them the ability to test out a few titles that they may never have played otherwise. It's been quite a while since the shareware boom, and to see the ability to try before you buy come back is definitely welcome.

As with anything, there are good and bad points to make about the technology. In order to understand just what they are, we'll walk through the process ourselves.



The Process In A Nutshell (Installation)

Ours is a prerelease copy that was shown at E3, and it doesn't include all the games that Sapphire will have on their shipping product. There are also a few other features and bumps in the road that are not final and will change by the time the product ships. The first interesting thing we noticed is that Sapphire uses a web interface. The problem here is that the very first thing we are greeted with is an active content warning. Depending on the end user's security settings, this could pose a problem.



Moving on, we come to the main screen where we will be able to look at each game included on the disk. From here, we have quick access to playing trials, buying games, or just clicking on the title to read about it.



Clicking on the image of the game brings up a short description of the title. If we want to play the trial, all we need to do is click a button. But note the warning that indicates the button should only be pressed once as the process can take up to 2 minutes.



In our experience, the wait between when we clicked the button and when something happened was between 3 and 5 minutes on a mid-range P4 system. Currently, there is no status bar, but Sapphire has indicated that there will be some UI tweaks, which should include some sort of status indication during the long wait times. These long waits are our major complaint about the package. It takes quite some time to unpack and install these games. Of course, the fact that no disk switching is required for any single game is nice. Again, as it is a web interface, we are greeted with this:



After dealing with this, the game's install process proceeds as usual.



And now, after everything is loaded, we can either play the game or unlock/purchase it.



The Process In A Nutshell (Trial and Purchase)

For every game that is installed, links for trial and purchase are dropped onto the desktop.



Running the trial brings up a screen similar to this one for each game:



From here, we can see how much time our trial has left, play the game a little more, or make a purchase. It does take a little bit of time to bring the game up once we've decided to play it, but other than that, there is nothing different than the normal experience. If we decide to unlock the game, we simply click on the buy option. In order to unlock or buy a game, we do need to have an internet connection.



Note that it is quite obvious how to pay for the game. In order to unlock the title for free with the Sapphire provided code, we must locate the coupon button. This is a nice little text link tucked away to the side.



Entering the code is as simple as typing it into the box that pops up. After this, Sapphire wants your email address for "important" emails.



Summing everything up, we see that our receipt is in the mail and we don't need a CD to play our game. That's definitely a nice feature.



And that's all there is to it.



Final Words

As we have said, our biggest complaint was the time that it took to install the games (especially in the current state with no status indicator). Though there is not much that can be done about the time that it takes, work is still being done on the UI.

The final game list that we have for now is as follows:

Brothers In Arms
The Chronicles of Riddick
Prince Of Persia Warrior Within
Tony Hawk Underground 2
Swat 4
Silent Hunter III
Ground Control II
Tribes Vengeance
Robots
Richard Burns Rally
Evil Genius

As time goes on, older titles will be replaced with newer ones, but this is what we should see in the first few boxes.

We feel that only an hour of play may be a bit on the short side, but it is enough to give the user a taste of what the game will be like. As this technology is tacked onto a game rather than built into it, we won't be seeing features that allow the completion of an objective as the end of the trial as was the case with shareware.

One of the issues that Sapphire talked about was the use of mods or patches with Trymedia's ActiveMARK (the software that makes this all possible). Sapphire has said that all the developers of all the games that they will include have signed on to support them with ActiveMARK friendly content. Patching the game with a standard update would essentially break the install, but if developers live up to their word, ActiveMARK users should have no issue updating their software at the same time as those who bought retail boxes. In fact, Sapphire has said that their DVDs will include the latest updates at the time of packaging.

Of course, security is of the utmost concern. Sapphire wouldn't be going forward with this unless they thought they had a safe bet in ActiveMARK. The hacker community hasn't hit a stumbling block yet. Generally, when it comes to encoding and protection schemes, the question is not "if..." but "when...". Generally, any type of encryption can be broken: it's just a matter of time. We will be interested to see how the community responds to this technology.

If all goes well for Sapphire, it is very likely that other vendors will quickly adopt Trymedia's solution. We see this (or similar) technology being included in all major graphics card vendors bundles in the not so distant future.

On the plus side, we don't need a CD or DVD in the drive, there's no swapping disks to install anything, users have the ability to choose the games that they like after a free trial period, and Sapphire is offering the rest of the games at a "significant" discount over retail (we aren't sure of the percentage, but Sapphire has said that all titles will be sold at very attractive prices).

The negatives include the time that it takes to install a game, the clunky interface (which should get better), and (currently) a lack of any extraordinarily compelling titles. Sapphire has been talking with Ubisoft, so we could see some interesting additions in the future.

Overall, this is a very useful idea that will continue to get better as it matures.

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