Sony is gaining real credibility among independent developers and the main reason is how easy it is to self-publish a game on PlayStation Network across PS3, PS4, PS Vita and PS Mobile. It’s up to you as a developer to set the price of the game and the release date. Sony will however recommend particular dates for you to maximize sales at a time where it’s not crowded with releases but at the end of the day its up to the developer.
Perhaps best of all, there are no fees involved in becoming an e-Publisher on PSN and you’ll get ESRB ratings for free on all digital games. Sony recently even disclosed how they let indie developers publish free updates and patches because they understand the financial struggles many indie devs face. During the submission process there is no longer any mandatory feedback, but if a developer would like it Sony will help with that too. There’s also a neat program called the DevKit Loaner Program which is subject to availability of course but might help get a project started when it might not have at all.
We can’t wait to see what great indie games the future has in store for the PlayStation Network in the coming months but what we do know for certain is that Sony is making sure they do what they can to make the PSN a platform for games, gamers and indie developers.
Do you want to publish a game on PSN? Read more about self-publishing here.
Although its great that a lot of indies are finding homes on sony platforms. But with most of them being available else where and for cheaper. Case in point i have 3 copies of limbo and they cost me less than $5 in total is it worth paying for again on the vita for closer to $1(probably)? i guess the portable aspect is there but still. in the future I would like to see a push for more indies to do original stuff as well as a drive for sony to get more exclusive content.
Good point, and I think they’re working on this. However Limbo is a pretty rare case of sudden fame, so it’s no wonder it’s out on everything :) Just watching the indie lineup at E3 by Sony was pretty indicative of what the future will hold.
Exclusive titles sound cool but they only hurt the developer as this cuts down the amount of revenue streams they can have. If and when my game is self published, it will be on PC and PS4.