Sony’s relationship with indie developers has had some ups-and-downs over the last ten-and-a-bit years.
Many of you may recall during the PS4’s initial E3 press conference, the platform holder took the unprecedented opportunity to spotlight a bunch of indie games coming to the console. This was a surprise move at the time, because historically trade shows had been reserved solely for the biggest AAA games.
But as the PS4 gained popularity, the manufacturer’s interest inevitably started to wane. The company was heavily criticised for failing to support smaller studios, and releasing software on the system became a massive headache.
Shuhei Yoshida was asked by then-CEO Jim Ryan to fix all that, and in an interview with Venture Beat, the ex-PS Studios boss shared some interesting intel on his progress.
“A few years back, one of the reasons I got that job from Jim [was] we’d been criticised by the indie community. They said that PlayStation doesn’t care about indies. You don’t hear that kind of criticism anymore.
“Last year we had lots of anecdotes from our indie partners that their new games were selling better on PlayStation than any other platform. That’s amazing. Some games sold better on PlayStation than on PC.
“When I started that work five years ago, our indie partners would say that when they released their games multiplatform, the Nintendo Switch version would sell three to five times more than PlayStation. Bit by bit, that gap has narrowed down. We have a strong team inside the company supporting indies.”
It’s a real testament to the excellence of Yoshida and his team’s work, and long may PlayStation remain a place to play great indie titles. Just last week, at State of Play, the manufacturer shined a spotlight on the likes of The Midnight Walk and Dreams of Another, two brilliantly creative projects that wouldn’t exist without the indie community.
Meanwhile, the likes of Balatro and Nine Sols have been real, legitimate Game of the Year contenders recently. It’ll be fascinating to see which great games emerge from the indie scene this year.
[source venturebeat.com]
Comments 20
I would say that is impressive because even if you’re just pumping money into marketing it still comes down to the consumer. So if they bought the console for Fortnite, how do you get them to try something like Stray (that was day one on Plus, but still).
I think that's because switch is an old console, most of new indie games run 30 fps on it, and maybe thanks for playstation portal more ps gamers play indie games on it. I just preorder the midnight black ps portal, can't wait to try it 😃
Yoshida did an incredible job. The reality is that, as things stand, the Switch as a product is simply a better "fit" for most indie games than the PS5.
If Yoshida and his team was able to overcome some of that then credit where credit's due. I think things like PS Portal will help even further in the future.
I know Yoshida left behind a great team, but they need to keep the same energy now he's gone. Keep doing what they're doing and ensure the content continues to flow.
Something to think about here is that there's less new AAA games being released than there was historically. Players are still looking at new games to find something to purchase on the Store and it's increasing the visibility and opportunity for growth for the indie games.
Same with trade shows, with longer and slower development cycles (and less innovation in some cases), there's opportunities for indie games to fill those gaps.
Shuhei Yoshida did a great job, but it was also a necessary job to fill in the gaps that the current market has.
@kevinm360 Are there really fewer AAA games releasing, though? It feels like there's more games than there's ever been in general.
"Shuhei Yoshida was asked by then-CEO Jim Ryan to fix all that"
I guess old Jimbo wasn't that bad huh...
Anyway. I remembered people critized Sony and mocked PS4 as "Indie Station" in the early PS4 days just because Sony continued to support indie devs from PS3 era with devs such as ThatGameCompany, Housemarque, Hello Games etc + new ones like Young Horses, Queasy Games, etc. The complainers always screams where's the AAA games and that's probably the reason why Sony kinda ditched the indies.
But kudos to Shuhei who did a great job to "fix the problem" with indie devs.
@get2sammyb Very much so. If you look at release schedules by generation. As time has progressed, the number of AAA games has reduced over time and the number of indie games increased to fill the gap before eclipsing it entirely this generation. What was once the minority of games on XBLA and PSN now makes up most of the digital storefronts, whereas outside of October and November you're likely only to see one or two AAA games released each month now.
"PS5 Has Narrowed the Gap on Switch's Indie Game Sales"
I don't see any mention of the PS5 in that article - PS4 yes, but not the 5.
@get2sammyb games in general have never had so much output yeah but AAA in particular is at a lowpoint due to increasing production times and costs.
Combine that with no new AAA publishers really entering the scene and some AAA publishers having a more balanced output that isn’t exclusively AAA games (helldivers for sony, endless ocean for nintendo, konami with recent contra output, koei tecmo’s entire modern catalog)
I dont get this "indies" are best suited to the switch,portal,deck etc etc. I prefer to play everything on as big a screen as possible and not squint at 7inch screen and lose all the detail 😀 Even the pc indie community play on decent size monitors.
kevinm360 wrote:
Hmmm... Press X to doubt. Do you have any evidence to back this up? Because usually it's commonly accepted that there are more games released than ever before, across all tiers including AAA (though 'AAA' is a nebulous term with no proper definition). Have to agree with @get2sammyb here, unless you have info the contrary.
@get2sammyb Maybe there are more AAA releases nowadays than ever before. But for somebody like us not working in the business like you, it might feel different, because so many PS5 games look so samey! Third person sword fighting with Dark Souls aesthetics, colourful RPGs in Anime style, sci-fi shooters, at a glance indistinguishable. That’s the reason why Astro Bot was so refreshing!
@Max_the_German what you just described is why I absolutely adore this gen! More swords and RPGs. Fewer FPS!
@Jrs1 Yeah me too. I bought a couple of indies for PSP, Vita, and 3DS and i still prefer to play them on console. Resogun for example, it looks beautiful on Vita OLED screen but PS4 version has more detail and runs better that makes it a lot more beautiful. Also i don't need to worry about charging the battery haha.
@get2sammyb As has been reported elsewhere,Shu Yoshida also mentioned he wasn't given an option by Jim Ryan. He was either to take over & revitalise Sony's Indie Division/Initiative,(which had been left to stagnate),or take an early retirement.
Seems to infer that rather than face push back from the experienced Yoshida over most First Party Studios being pushed into mass live services expansion,Jim Ryan appointed the more agreeable Herman Hulst,& we've seen the resulting fallout in more recent times.
Whilst Yoshida clearly has a passion for gaming & may not have aspired to ever being CEO,it does make you wonder what a more measured approach of SIE First Party projects had Shu stayed there rather than Hermen Hulst throwing randomly at the dart board would've done.
Hopefully as you say,the Indie Division continues to perform as First Party studios are attempting to repivot.
@AhmadSumadi I also like these games, but most of them are so by the numbers, both in gameplay and presentation. In thr 90s and during the PS2 era, the look of the games were much more distinctive.
@Jrs1 I’m guessing a lot of it comes from the fact most people who are heavily into indies don’t care about the graphical or detail aspect of the games… Only the game play aspect. Most of these games look just as good on a 7inch vs 85inch screen. You’re not gaining anything from playing Stardew on a 85inch screen. A steam deck will also play a lot of these games maxed out at full resolution…
Another big reason for the switch, portal, and deck being the best place for indies. Is cause indie games allows for a much easier pick up and play. Most of these games don’t have endless 2-5 minute loading screens, have shorter game loops… etc. You easily play these game while at work on break, at a coffee shop, or on the train, plane, or bus.
A lot of indie games are also very cozy with cozy vibes. Being able to play them curled up in bed underneath a warm blanket with a pet cuddled up next to you is bliss.
Now my personal reason for switch, portal, deck being best suit for indies is due to minimal UI and very little heat those systems put out vs my PC and monitor. Booting up windows and steam to a pain. I live in a small studio apartment, so my 4090 and 1000nit OLED monitor basically becomes a space heater for an apartment that has an ambient temperature of 76 degrees F even in the winter
@AverageGamer Believe you me bud when you start hitting your more shall we say "mature years" the difference between viewing something at 7inch vs 65inch plus is quite apparent 🤓🤣 ps im in scotland, we only have varying degrees of feckin freezing 😆🥶🥶
Acknowledging them sure. In terms of support it varies.
Vita they tried then kind of gave up. Let them just release on there, sure Asian English releases happened for that side as well.
PS5 is more a higher power platform, getting used to 4K and other things. Switch doesn't have that. Regardless of resolution the things needed for Switch TV or not I assume can be worked out but doesn't have to as how 4K TVs are or the power of the PS5 or what it's more designed for. So the dock versus a TV or a PC has a fair few differences? I'd assume?
However engines/API/etc. work out.
Portal is a casting device, it requires nothing and has no dual screen or other tweaks it can be used for. It's no different to casting your phone. Vita was used better in Playroom Camera app even (same with phone/tablet or Playlink games yet Vita wasn't compatible, let alone Playroom VR use cases) and allowed for more.
Unless Indies just can't be bothered but my guess is that unlike a phone/Vita/PSVR and TV screen differences for 2 or 3 images they had more hardware to allow it to progress and have inputs differently. Portal is so cut down even besides the internals or the Dualsense that they just can't do anything more with it or don't want to.
But wasn't Yoshida told by Jim Ryan that he had to take that job or leave Sony completely?
It's been reported quite heavily elsewhere but not mentioned here that I've seen.
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