Inside Sony's indie initiative: How the hardware giant is courting small-team talent

"It's not just about our policies, it's about our people."

By Jeffrey Matulef

The two-man developer Vlambeer knew it was on to something with its 2D dogfighting retro throwback Luftrausers. Its snappy pace and minimalist visuals seemed well suited for on-the-go gaming, but Vlambeer worried its control scheme would be compromised on mobile. Instead, the Netherlands-based developer decided it would be a perfect fit for the PlayStation Vita's widescreen and button input. So it did what any small studio would do - it worked on a pitch.

Before Vlambeer could send this out, Sony came to them.

Maybe this isn't that wild. The two had worked together before on Super Crate Box, after all, but it's indicative of a larger movement that Sony's been working towards, its goal to become the defacto hotspot for indie developers.

[Arai]

It's all about games and gamers, as it should be.
Their strategy is paying off, for Sony as well as the devs.

[Muerte2494]

are all coming from the indie community and Sony recognizes this. They also no that devs aren't happy while Microsoft about getting their games on XBL. That why we're seeing a shift of indie over to Sony's camp. This will force Microsoft to re-evaluate their policies concerning XBL. Either way, it's a win win for us gamers.

[majiebeast]

Sony got humbeled with the ps3 this gen and found out that ppl wont follow you if you jump in a pit of fire. So far its looking pretty killer Hotline mofo Miami in May easily 1 of the best games last year. So double dipping on that.

[GameCents]

Paying off in terms of money? Not lately.

[majiebeast]

The guys behind Blacklight Retribution have made a Mark Cerny shrine.

http://instagram.com/p/Ysy5...

The Trifecta of Kaz,Cerny and Yosp

Kaz Hirai-This man just gets gaming and him as CEO is the best new for Playstation.
Mark Cerny-The man knows every aspect of the industry from Software,Hardware,Directing,Pr oducing you name it he has probably done it.
Shuhei Yoshida-The man that brings the software from first party to indie. He has been pretty big in this whole push for the indie dev. He loves their games and cant get enough of Guacemelee crazy @Yosp

[showtimefolks]

i think sony realized few years into ps3 that they can't compete with MS or Nintendo with casuals, i am sure if they try harder they can but instead they focused on us the core gamers and it has brought them all the way back and now on pace to be the most sold console 3 straight gens

give us games
than more games
more games and when you think we are tired give us more games

simple way to success in gaming

[sherimae2413]

keep up the good work, sony ^_^

[isarai]

Still waiting to see of MS does anything to counteract this, or if they just get their shit together period in the aspect of supporting and respecting indie devs, cause so far their track record has just been shit and isn't getting any better.

[InMyOpinion]

MS has an Xbox Live Indie Games channel where anyone can pay $99 to get access to the XNA tools and upload their game. And all of them have trial versions too.

Where's the indie channel on PSN?

[isarai]

LOL i'm talking behind the scenes, they put indie devs through hell and offer the smallest profit ratios per sale than PSN or Steam. Just because they have a good market for you to buy cheap things from doesn't mean everything is fine and dandy, many indie devs have migrated away from MS for that

[Catoplepas]

XNA is no longer being actively developed, and MS have drop support as of the beginning of this year.

[Utalkin2me]

Lol @ this guy.....Uninformed

[yewles1]

"Boyes notes that SCEA hasn't charged an indie for a patch in over three years. 'It's goofy for us to think that if a game is better we're going to charge people [for] patches.'"

Niiiiiice!