Why Is My PlayStation Pushing Indie Games? Ask Adam Boyes.

Look at the top-10 charts for retail game sales released by the NPD Group each month, and you’ll see a lot of familiar names: Activision. Ubisoft. EA. Warner Bros. Take-Two. They’re mainly big publishers with big budgets, releasing big games with a generous assist from big retail chains.

That number is growing, too; at a press event on Wednesday, Adam Boyes, PlayStation VP of developer and publisher relations. announced 12 new indie games for the PS4. Sort of like Apple, Sony gets some developer goodwill and artistic cred from all this, but what does it mean for its games business? Re/code caught up with Boyes one-on-one after the event.

[waltyftm]

I believe it is because it is a Games Console, Indie games are games imo, the more the merrier.

[Webbyy]

Yup, All games are games..they all may not be the same quality but a game that I don't enjoy, others might. and it goes for everyone :-)

[waltyftm]

Well said.

[Kingthrash360]

agreed.
to add to why the indie push, my thoughts are the fact that the 360 had a larger line up of exclusive indies while the ps3 had a larger lineup of AAA exclusives...sony is just trying to get a larger line up of both, indies and AAA exclusives.

[HeWhoWalks]

Simple, logical concept! Unfortunately, it will go on some deaf ears, but Indie Games are here to stay and that's a good thing! They very much remind me of many games from the past - a good deal of which we call "classics" today.

[JMyers]

I'd much rather games get pushed instead of TV shows on a games console. Games first... Triple A and Indie!

[Tross]

Indie games are awesome IMHO. Not all of them are pretty, but some are, and for me, nice graphics are secondary to the rest of the experience. I think indie games have proven themselves as creative IPs, that go beyond what most big companies are willing to take a risk on, and for that reason, I like them a lot. Does that mean that all indie games are good? No. Not only is quality subjective, but not all AAA games are solid either. On average though, I've been happy with the indie titles I've tried.

[Josh101]

I agree completely. People seem to think that EA and Activision spawned over-night and started pumping out games. They were indies once as well. These developers will be the ones making "God of tactical shooter lands 3," in the next 10-20 years.

[Death]

It's amazing how ignorant people are with the concept of indies vs independent developers. You are a perfect example of that. EA was never an indie developer nor was activision. They were both pioneers in video games for the PC and Atari 2600 in Activisions case. Don't confuse old with todays indies which are homebrew games with some established developers taking advantage of self publishing under the indie banner.

[AD705]

I don't think supporting indies is a bad thing but sony seems a bit too involved with it. Every new thing that comes out nowadays from the ps4 side seems to be some indie game. Where are the AAA exclusives?

[GarrusVakarian]

"Where are the AAA exclusives?"

At E3? They announced tons of indies a couple of days ago, that was a good thing, now they won't take up as much time at E3. Think about it.

The vast majority of indies aren't for me, but some of them are good for filling in the gaps between big releases. I'd rather play something in-between big releases than literally nothing at all.

[AD705]

But then again sony hasn't really teased much of anything. They said that they have 20 exclusives for the ps4 in it's first year and they've shown us nothing really.

[GarrusVakarian]

@Above

I get what you're saying, but it's only May dude. Plus, lack of teasing is not the same as having nothing to tease.

[iceman06]

@AD705...the absence of evidence does not mean the evidence of absence. E3 is just around the corner. It's just the beginning of May. Sony is probably being real protective of things to ensure that E3 is truly a surprising event. If this were a year into the consoles life, I might be worried. However, being 6 months in, this is par for the course. In fact, with 64 options of games to play. I would say that they are well below par at this point. They have added Indies and F2P to their library to expand their reach and to keep gamers busy in between the major AAA releases.

[CYCLEGAMER]

@AD705
I totally agree, while I play indies, I did not buy a next gen console to play indies on it. I want new next gen games that push the hardware and validate my purchase of a "next gen system".

AAA exclusives first, indies second.

[GameDev1]

I really don't think when Sony or MS designed their Next gen consoles, they aimed it only at AAA titles

I don't know why people like you dislike indies because they are really innovative, more difficult gameplay wise and take more risk compared to AAA titles which are slowly dying tbh (don't believe me, search it)

As somebody who develops indie games and for other indie game devs, i am really disappointed at the some of the recent gaming communities attitude towards indies, these 16 bit games are the games are the game started out gaming on PC and consoles.

Sony have done a great job keeping with the indie initiative, there are some great showcase of indies they have shown that i will put so much hours into.

[CYCLEGAMER]

@gamedev1
When and where in my comment did I say that I did not like/dislike Indie games?? Please quote me on that! In fact I said that I play them.

Indies are a nice little treat, but are not what I bought a next gen console for. What is the point of the ps4, Nintendo wii u or xbox one if they are mainly focused on games that do not push the hardware? We might as well stick with last gen consoles. Again...nothing against indie games....I PLAY THEM SOMETIMES. But I did not spend over a thousand dollars on next gen consoles to play games that can be ran on a tablet.

Why is this so hard for people to understand? I feel like people are on this Indie kick because Sony (everyones favorite company) is now supporting it and most of its games are comprised of indies. Where was all of this Indie support when MS had THOUSANDS of indies on its console and the others didn't have as many? Nobody complained about indies then, why are they such a big deal now that Sony is supporting them "more than MS"?

[GameDev1]

@MELMAN26

"When and where in my comment did I say that I did not like/dislike Indie games?? Please quote me on that! In fact I said that I play them."

Sorry you are right i didn't see that part

I still stand by my statement though that Sony and MS didn't specifically say their Next gen consoles were for AAA titles only.

You did get titles that push the hardware, Infamous, Killzone, Driveclub, Metal Gear, MLB14 and more possibly coming but you get indies games with them as those AAA titles can't come everytime due to their expensive productions.

"But I did not spend over a thousand dollars on next gen consoles to play games that can be ran on a tablet."

Err, who is forcing your hand to buy these indie games, do you believe you are the only one who spent money on these consoles, What about the people who want to play indie games as well as AAA titles?? That self entitlement eh

This is no Sony favouritism. Support for indies on Sony? You are not the first person to complain about the amount of indies on PS4 or people calling it the "indiestation" that sound familiar? The support for indies these days has reduced

I don't know why people didn't praise MS, but i also don't remember people bashing it for having indies like the PS4, but i don't have a 360 and it was of great initiative of them to get indies in their ID program and they should continue with the same for the Xbox One as it will give it diversity of games and support indie devs.

Is that what you were looking for, praise for MS? well there you go

[CYCLEGAMER]

@Gamedev
Look, I understand that you may be a indie dev, so you will not understand what I am saying as it regards to indies. I am sure that in a perfect world (for you) indies would be prioritized over actual next gen games.

What I am TRYING to convey to you is that indies are fine....but they have a place. IMO they should not be and never have been (until now) put at the forefront of a new console. I want Sony to tell me more about the new next gen games that are coming instead of announcing how many Indie studios they have.

Who said that I am forced to buy indies? I am more so talking about Sony's focus, I want more big games. The ps4 so far has Driveclub, and the order for the rest of this year...I need more, than that...Sorry!

[BitbyDeath]

Without indies you wouldn't have more AAA titles just less games. But said indie dev could later grow into making AAA titles.

[TheRealHeisenberg]

Sure, the more the merrier. How about this one?

http://n4g.com/news/1501188...

[AtomicGerbil]

Why not?

Today's successful indie devs are tomorrow's AAA devs. Why stifle hidden talent?

[miyamoto]

Indie Games success story on mobile gaming SAVED the traditional console gaming industry from the "only-the-wealthiest-deve loper-survives", "go-big-or-go-home" and the multi-million dollar developer money hatting habit that M$ notoriously corrupted many Western & Japanese game makers with.

Indie games on Android & iOS stopped M$ rampage.

Sony and Nintendo did not have a prayer when it came to lavish expenditures from M$. M$ exploited the economic crisis of 2008 to BUY its way into many developers & publishers' business.
M$ pays them victims to do their job

Many core gamers who are obsessed with huge, multi-million dollar AAA games may hate mobile games like Angry Birds, Minecraft, Cut the Rope, Temple Run, but if it weren't for these small indie games, who has proven that there is money to be made in simple, small sized games, traditional console gaming would have went into another video game crash.

Indie games brought balance to the games industry and PS4 championed them in E3 2013. A wake up slap in the face to M$ & Nintendo.

Indie Games are the savior of traditional gaming.
They are the "Nirvana" of game developers.

[prodg52]

People these days are so impatient. If Sony rushes and releases a broken game, then they'll whine and complain. Sony is pushing indies in order to fill the gap between development of AAA exclusives. It's smart business. When PS2 and 3 launched there would be months before ANY game came out.

[uth11]

Yup, they'll complain how broken a game is. But when a developer delays a game to get the issues out, they complain about that too! Can't win :P

[PrinceOfAllSaiyans]

Yosp already said indies are to balance out triple A. Look at the releases coming for Xbox One, they have nothing really exclusive wise. PS4 has indies to fill the gap.

And at one point most studios are indie. Sony could find the next great studio.

[S2Killinit]

they act like all PS4 has is indie. PS4 is getting indies in addition to what other consoles have. All I know though, is that Helldivers is coming, and its my most anticipated game for now.

[WeAreLegion]

Because good games are good games, no matter where they come from. Maintaining relationships now means more support from those developers in the future. Somewhere out there is a small two man/woman team who is the next Valve or Naughty Dog or Bungie.

[Josh101]

My exact thoughts. +1

[incendy35]

Kind of funny that the Indie Channel on Xbox 360 was pretty much universally shunned but now that the PS4 has indies everyone thinks they are so cool :D.

Personally I have always enjoyed the Indie scene, felt so fun to discover games no one else had played and tell them about it. Steam especially makes that fun, since there are so many unknown games out there.

[Jag-T1000]

Because they are running scared with no exclusive titles. That's why!

[KinjoTakemura]

Neither console has very many GOOD or even GREAT exclusives. Most of the AAA exclusives on both consoles SUCK!!!

[BitbyDeath]

"We obviously want games to be great standalone, as well, but multiplayer local is such a powerful thing."

Less talk more show, local multiplayer is seriously lacking in todays games.

[curtis92]

people act like these indie games are somehow delaying AAA Games... nope. It's all IN ADDITION to. So complain about indies all you want, it's just more to enjoy inbetween AAA games.

[KinjoTakemura]

The article isn't an attack on indies for those of you who obviously did not read the article. Indies developers have the potential to develop good games, games that people like, games that people want to buy, which equals more money for Sony and more games for the ps4. If Sony makes a 40k investment in an indie developer and sells a game for 10 bucks and 1 million copies of that games sells, it's a win for Sony, it's a win for gamers who get access to more games and it's a win for developers who would have never had a chance if it wasn't for Sony.

Also, to those who think that Sony doesn't have exclusives, (who cares) The total number of PS4 exclusives slated for release this year is 27/TWENTYSEVEN, 18 of which are Sony exclusives.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...

The total number of xbox one exclusives slated for 2014 is a grand total of 16, *9/NINE* of which are Microsoft exclusives.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...

To those of you who hate indies, it's a free country, don't buy them.

To the butthurt, whiney, sobbing, xbox one douchbag, fanboys, your beloved Microsoft is doing you a disservice by not giving you as many options and choices that you can possibly have and it's only for one reason, GREED.

[Rhezin]

because THEY. ARE. FUN. Seriously try them out first before you bash em.