As the war for developer support rages on between Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo, the PlayStation maker has admitted that it’s seeing an unprecedented level of interest in its platforms. Speaking with Develop, SCEE account manager Agostino Simonetta noted that after four years in the job, the current surge of studios committing to the brand is unlike anything that’s come before.
"I can tell you that I have been here for four years, and one of my colleagues has been in third-party relations for ten years, and we've never seen anything like this,” he told the site. “And this is not just for the PlayStation 4, as it applies to the PlayStation Vita and the PlayStation 3 as well."
The battle for indie support heated up overnight, as Microsoft reversed its stance on self-publishing, and revealed plans to transform retail Xbox One consoles into development kits. However, the Japanese giant has already struck back, confirming that it will be hosting quarterly events at its London offices for developers from all around the world to attend.
“We do these things very regularly with all of our partners, but with the indie community, it's so vast and they are so spread out, that it's hard for me to go and work with developer days in the Middle East,” Simonetta explained. According to Develop, the events could start as soon as September, and will allow studios to obtain updates on all of the PlayStation platforms, as well as discuss the growth of the PlayStation Network.
The whole initiative reflects Sony’s desire to maintain open communication with developers. “We are really accelerating and changing the way that we approach this,” continued Simonetta. “There is a real opportunity for us to go and broadcast – [it gives us] a lot more visibility to be able to answer questions.”
And it’s an area that Microsoft – switcheroo or not – will have to work on. The competitor may have opened up its platform overnight, but the PlayStation maker is still scooping up all of the goodwill when it comes to developer feedback. Worryingly for the Redmond-based firm, that situation won't change overnight – just ask the people at Sony who’ve spent the past five years apologising for the PS3’s shortcomings.
[source develop-online.net, via vg247.com]
Comments 14
So Sony's pretty much winning this battle? Fine by me.
I have to admit, Sony did learn from their PS3 mistakes and so far everything is looking bright for the Sony gaming brand. Now only if they can give us an updated on whats going on with Gaikai.
@Kayoss that's what I wanna know too. What's the deal, etc.
I'm glad there's more quantity, so long as they maintain the brand's level of quality. Good idea to host tea parties tho : ) hipster devs will eat it up. Do they only mean indie devs tho? Or both
@charlesnarles It's both, I think. From what I gather, they've always done these meetings for the "big boys". Now they're inviting the little guys, too.
EDIT: Actually, it sounds like these may be separate. It's not entirely clear. What is clear is that they've always done meetings for the big publishers, but now they're doing one for small developers as well. Whether they'll be at different times, I don't know.
Apparently the latest XBone about-face on indies isn't all it appears to be.
http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/xbox-one-self-publishing-not-the-equivalent-to-what-other-platforms-offer/0119134
I think this news sounds better than it actually is, as there are for more developers now than there have ever been.
@Kayoss I would like to know more information on Gaikai as well, but I think Sony's going to wait it out a little longer so Microsoft doesn't try and copy their ideas as usual.
Much talk but still the vita is tanking. I was a believer from launch but every e3 was a dissapoitment. Give me YS
@Sanquine
And it will continue to tank. It's disappointing because Vita has good games but there's not a system seller in the bunch and Sony doing nothing regarding pricing doesn't help.
On topic though, I love all the support Sony and Nintendo seem to be getting from indies. It's led to lots of great, very fairly priced games to help make the wait between big retail releases easier. And in some cases, these indie games are better.
Is there ever a situation where too much developer support is a bad thing? For example, with too many games on the market, it could be easy for some very good games to not get the attention and recognition they deseve, leading to poor sales. Developing for Nintendo right now might sound like a terrible idea, but with so few games on the market, you're going to get noticed because gamers want new stuff to play.
@jgrangervikings I suppose it works both ways. If you're flooding the market with new releases at the same time, you need new launch planners. At the same time, people will feel like their console is getting amazing support, and will justify their purchase because of it.
If you spread out your big titles poorly, you end up like the Vita and Wii U. At the end of the day, I'd say most gamers would rather have too many games rather than too few.
Has anyone else noticed that Microsoft probably should have not even shown up at E3 this year? Everything they said they have now changed.
@ShogunRok
Absolutely. It makes no sense to want fewer games coming to your console. That used to be Nintendo's mantra. "Quality over quantity." Just a nice way of saying, "guys, we don't have sh*t." Yeah, the N64 had some real gems, in fact I'd say it might have more games that I consider classics than PSone did, but the PSone's overall library was far superior. I'd rather have a bunch of good-great games than 4 or 5 classics over 5 years.
@ShogunRok For what it's worth, I don't think the Wii U has any really good games besides Pikmin 3, which hasn't even come out yet in the U.S. Nintendo's not exactly spreading out games poorly when they haven't really released anything of note yet. But yeah, I get what you mean.
@fortius54 Microsoft's policies are the things that changed, not the games they showed. Since they didn't really talk much at all about their policies at the E3 conference, I'd say it was a good thing they had a conference. Everything that was changed was stuff announced prior to E3.
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