Sony Wants to Amplify Indie Scene in Japan

Indie games represent a gigantic part of the market in Europe and North America right now, but they're less popular in Japan. We're starting to see developers like Yu Suzuki, Keiji Inafune, and Koji Igarashi break away from big publishers in order to go it alone, but these examples are rare. Speaking at the BitSummit convention in Kyoto, Sony boss Shuhei Yoshida explained that the platform holder wants to help the space to thrive in the East.

As reported by DualShockers, the affable executive highlighted three ways in which the organisation intends to help achieve this. First, it hopes to get more Japanese gamers downloading software, and so it's working to bring a lot of Western indie games overseas. Yoshida believes that if there's great downloadable software hitting the Japanese PlayStation Store every week, local gamers will gradually become accustomed to purchasing titles from the online plaza.

The company spokesperson also hinted that bringing back historical intellectual properties like Shenmue III could help. He noted that many Western gamers grew up with Japanese games, and so there's a massive market for old favourites. He added that virtual reality could help Eastern indie developers to thrive as well, as titles involving idols and such are considered a bit embarrassing by studios overseas. Yoshida believes that Japanese outlets will find success if they approach this market with confidence.

The executive concluded that Japan was incredibly late to the indie scene, but it's finally catching up now. We'd really like to see some more downloadable stuff from overseas, as titles like Trash Panic and Tokyo Jungle are among our favourites from the previous generation. Would you like to see an increase in Eastern indies, too? Drown in great games via the comments section below.