Has Sony Really Fallen Out of Love with Indie Games? 1

Ever since PlayStation Europe chief Jim Ryan’s unfortunate choice of words on indie games, there’s been a spate of hot takes about how Sony’s abandoned the scene. It’s taken us at Push Square Towers by surprise, seeing as only a few months ago we were writing articles arguing against PlayStation Store curation. Y’see, a string of sub-par digital downloads prompted an alternative hot take from the very same gaming press earlier this year: why are so many games allowed on the PlayStation 4? If you’re feeling dizzy, then so are we.

If you missed the original quotes, Ryan essentially explained that the reason there were no indie games in the company’s E3 2017 press conference last week is because it feels it’s already legitimised the indie scene and it’s now trying to do the same with PlayStation VR. It’s fair to argue that it could do both (though we’re sure commenters on websites just like this one would be the first to complain) but the executive also pointed out that it has other venues for indie titles, like the PlayStation Blog or its own PlayStation Experience event – which played host to almost 100 playable indie games just six months ago.

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Has Sony Really Fallen Out of Love with Indie Games? 2

Running a website always gives you a greater appreciation for a console’s catalogue, and honestly, the assertion that Sony’s no longer coveting indie games is absurd to us. There are so many titles releasing on the PlayStation Store these days that we’ve long had to scrap our ambition to review everything: we pick and choose the things that we think you’ll find most interesting – and that even means (sadly) declining passionate requests for coverage from some teams. Across the months of March, April, and June, our review docket consisted of almost 100 games – many of them indie.

In fact, how many high-profile indie games (not in Early Access) can you name that aren’t already available for or planned to release on the PS4? Aside from titles tied up in Xbox exclusivity like Cuphead, we’re really struggling. No doubt such titles exist – the indie scene is very big – but the two highest profile ones we would have mentioned, Undertale and Superhot, were both announced for Sony’s console at E3 2017. Go figure.

To be fair, there are questions to be raised. Sony has clearly pulled funding from some of its external development endeavours – God of War developer Santa Monica no longer appears to be in the publishing business, with many of its key personnel moving to Annapurna Interactive – and the drama involving RiME remains a high-profile example of that. We’d love to ask first-party chief Shuhei Yoshida what's going on, but we’re pretty sure that his response would involve a reallocation of resources to new initiatives like PlayStation VR and PlayLink.

Has Sony Really Fallen Out of Love with Indie Games? 3

So, if the release schedule suggests Sony still loves indie games and its actions at events like PlayStation Experience and E3 2017 (albeit not on the press conference stage) suggest otherwise, then what effectively has changed? The only conclusion we can come to is that the platform holder doesn’t have an evangelist for the space anymore – in fact, it’s lost a lot of public facing names in the last few years. Adam Boyes is probably the biggest loss (he’s returned to development with Iron Galaxy), but Nick Suttner (now at Oculus) and Shahid Ahmad (currently rekindling his bedroom development roots) also spring to mind.

And perhaps this is the lesson that Sony needs to take from E3 2017: it’s lost a lot of speakers who connected strongly with the core gaming community, and no one’s really filled those shoes yet. It’s a shame because it’s clear that business behind-the-scenes is still the same as it’s always been – in fact, we daresay there will be some PlayStation employees that will be deeply hurt by suggestions that it’s fallen out of love with indies especially.

But what people like Adam Boyes did is reflect that internal passion externally, and there’s no one really evangelising the indie space – and PlayStation as a whole – right now. It’s something that (from an optics perspective) the platform holder needs to fix, because while we’re sure big-wigs like Shawn Layden and Jim Ryan are wonderful at their day-to-day jobs, it’s important for PlayStation to have amiable figureheads who not only feel comfortable connecting with core fans, but also serve to effectively reflect the company’s mantra for everyone on the outside to see.

Do you think Sony's fallen out of love with indie games, or is this just a big storm in a teacup that doesn't really reflect reality? Bring back that IndieStation misnomer in the comments section below.