Sony offers UK PS5 players two free game trials – but there's a twist

Sony is offering free trials of two PS5 games: Death Stranding Director's Cut and Sackboy: A Big Adventure. 

Right now it looks as though the free samples are only available in the UK, and the amount of time you'll get depends upon which game you fancy; Sackboy reportedly offers five hours of play, whereas Death Stranding offers six (as I own both games, unfortunately, I can't double-check this for you!).

As Eurogamer points out, however, there's a really cruel twist here, as your timer isn't limited to the time you spend in-game, but begins the moment you select "Download Trial". This means if it takes 2.5 hours for you to download Sackboy: A Big Adventure, you'll have just 2.5 hours left to play it.

Curiously, you can apparently only try one trial per PSN account, too, which means you have to choose between which game tickles your interest more, as you're not able to sample both. PS4 versions cannot be sampled, either. 

The free trials are running in the UK until October 28, and any progress and trophies will be saved should you decide to go on and purchase the full game, although if – for some reason – you decide to buy DLC to try during your trial, you won't be able to play it; add-ons can only be used with the full version of the game. 

Thankfully, the internet has already found a workaround, so before you start your download, redditor jsnals suggests you make a new account with the same region as your main account and click "download trial" on that account. Once it's downloaded, head back to your main account and click "download trial" but – because you've already saved it to your hard drive – you can play right away for the full five or six hours. Cool, eh?

Still looking for a PS5 or an Xbox Series X? We have good news – it looks like the global chip shortage that's making it so difficult for Sony and Microsoft to meet the demand for their next-gen systems may be coming to an end.

The CEO of hardware provider AMD recently announced the chip shortage "will get better in 2022", although cautioned that supplies will "likely [be] tight" into the first half of next year. However, given it may take a while for the chips to be ready for manufacturers for another year or so, some customers might end up waiting until 2023 for their new tech.

Here's our complete list of PS5 exclusives.