'We've Always Been There with Indies' Says PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan

At the beginning of PlayStation 4's life, Sony earned itself a reputation as a huge supporter of indie games and developers. This focus seems to have shifted somewhat over the course of the generation, as the platform holder pours more and more resources into its own blockbuster exclusives. We've seen much of the indie scene move away from PS4 and onto Nintendo Switch as of late. However, Jim Ryan, CEO of PlayStation, decries claims that Sony doesn't care about indies.

Speaking to GamesIndustry, Ryan insists that Sony's focus on indie games hasn't gone away. "We feel that it's not a question of us coming back to the indies, because we feel like we've never left," he says. His argument is that many independent teams have become engaged with virtual reality, and with PlayStation VR, Sony moved with these studios to help them with this new technology. "People tend to forget about this, but the amount of indie engagement with VR is actually really very significant. We are very active with them, we've been engaged with human resource, we've been very financially supportive, we've been sharing experiences as people start to learn about what makes a great VR experience."

Shuhei Yoshida is taking up a new position within Sony to nurture smaller teams, which seems to imply a refreshed interest from the company in independent games. However, Ryan says that Sony has "always been there with indies", and that its engagement with them "has remained at the levels that it was during the early days of PS4".