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The story
A game trial for the PS5 version of “Honogurashi no Niwa” has gone live for PlayStation®Plus Premium members. Save data carries over to the full game, but the trial is limited to Premium members and caps out at 5 hours of play. On the forums, questions piled up over the release format — “why not make it playable for everyone?” and “I’ve never heard of a paid demo before.” Posters also shared data comparing sales figures with the Switch version, speculating that weak PS5 sales were behind the demo dropping less than a month after launch, with the gap in enthusiasm between platforms becoming the main topic of conversation.
The “#HonogurashinoNiwa” game trial is now live on PlayStation®Plus Premium 🌱
Save data carries over to the full game!
Come experience life in Kanogatsu Village however you like ✨
Source: x.com / Original post here
What people said
Why is this a PS+ Premium exclusive?
Probably because their royalties [the platform's cut per sale] would take a hit otherwise
Also, there's a decent amount of content in it too
Are they trying to sabotage Switch's sales or something?
They've run their whole strategy on the pitch "third-party games sell on PlayStation, but on Nintendo hardware only Nintendo's own games sell" to court third parties, so from Sony's perspective they can't afford to ignore third-party titles racking up strong numbers on Nintendo hardware
That's why they're reacting so fast
Different user base entirely
NS1/2 PS4/5 2026 Software Sales
465,160 145,732 Dragon Quest VII Remake
*65,394 207,836 Resident Evil Requiem
*21,134 *95,111 Like a Dragon: Kiwami 3
*27,582 *68,664 Pragmata
*81,945 *10,537 Goemon All-Stars
*66,107 *19,659 Monster Hunter Stories 3
*44,000 **9,542 Honogurashi no Niwa
*29,818 *16,240 Elliott the Adventurer
You've got to treat your best customers with care
Yeah, probably…
They're probably thinking "once people try it, they'll definitely buy it!"
Naive. Those people won't touch it unless it's free
I bet sales barely budge and it's going to be depressing
Don't underestimate the demand from the so-called "broke PlayStation" crowd (cash-strapped PS fans who rarely spend)
Once a game's been out a month, that crowd treats it as old news and won't drop a single yen on it
Because it's clear only the PS side isn't riding this wave
Making it paid on purpose probably means they paid extra to have this specially made…
Rankings on each store
*3rd: Switch2
*7th: Switch
43rd: PS5 (combined PS4/PS5 ranking)
https://store-jp.nintendo.com/software/ranking/switch2/
https://store-jp.nintendo.com/software/ranking/switch/
https://store.playstation.com/ja-jp/pages/browse
Checked the combined Switch/Switch2 ranking — the Switch2 version dropped to 4th, losing only to Rhythm Heaven
The Switch version came in 14th, beaten out by Switch2's own 1st-through-7th spots
Rankings on each store
*4th: Switch2 (combined Switch/Switch2 ranking)
14th: Switch (combined Switch/Switch2 ranking)
43rd: PS5 (combined PS4/PS5 ranking)
It blew up like crazy
Forget a week-long trial, this one's capped at 5 hours…
What even is this
If we're going there, Microsoft was probably the one who started that first
Nope, not on Steam either
I mean, the game's only been out a month and they're already releasing a paid demo — never heard of that
Releasing a free demo later on, sure, that happens a lot
Part of what makes that work is the 1-week limited window — makes it easy for the community to share buzz together
If it were open-ended, it wouldn't build that momentum
So something like what's in Re: #1 ends up being nothing more than a glorified demo…
Most titles with a game trial max out at 2 hours
For Honogurashi that's still nowhere near enough, lol
It's limited to PlayStation users with the monthly subscription lol
Those people only play big-name IPs or free-to-play games
You could call it the hardware least suited to a brand-new IP
For reference, I dropped the slow-life game Story of Seasons pretty fast lol
Also, if I do buy it, it'll be the PS version
Then just try the trial while it's running
Though 5 hours will probably end before most of the scary stuff even shows up, so if Story of Seasons wasn't for you, this probably won't be either
Yeah, they'll play it if it's free-to-play
Take Ender Lilies — while it's touted as having passed 1.5 million units sold worldwide, it's racked up 6.4 million downloads as a free-to-play title
Downloaded doesn't mean played though
Those people just grab it to have it, and it sits in their digital backlog forever
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
PS+ Premium’s “Game Trial” lets members play the actual full retail game for a limited amount of time, and has been offered as something distinct from a free demo that anyone can play. It’s unusual for a release only about a month old to get this trial treatment, and that point drew notable surprise on the forum. Nintendo’s trial program, by contrast, is a free, time-limited event open to anyone, so the two systems differ in both membership requirements and scope — a simple comparison of which is “better” doesn’t really hold up. The sales figures for each title cited in the replies come from weekly store rankings and unofficial tallies, not confirmed numbers released by the publishers, so caution is warranted there. Whether poor PS5 sales are actually the reason behind the trial release is also just speculation from the thread — it hasn’t been officially stated as such.
*This article is compiled and summarized from the 5ch (Hardware/Industry (Geha)) thread “[Good News] PS5 Version of ‘Honogurashi no Niwa’ Game Trial Now Available — Play Up to 5 Hours!“
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