Dan Adelman knows a thing or two about indie games. The industry veteran previously spearheaded the launch of Microsoft’s wildly successful Xbox Live Arcade, before switching his attention to Nintendo’s digital push, where he secured a slew of top titles for the House of Mario’s machines, including World of Goo and the BIT.TRIP series. Now, having departed the Japanese organisation after almost a decade in his post, he’s opened up to Nintendo Life about PlayStation’s indie loving approach.
“Sony’s done a great job improving their processes and making them much more indie friendly,” he beamed. “I give a lot of credit to [third-party chief] Adam Boyes, but he often says that there was already a grass roots effort underway at Sony just waiting for someone like him to show up. I really commend Sony HQ for giving Adam the reins, but I give Adam even more kudos for knowing what to do with them.”
The PlayStation maker’s really led the way in the digital space of late, locking down titles such as No Man’s Sky and DayZ. However, according to Adelman, Sony’s strategy isn’t that different to Nintendo’s. “In many ways, Nintendo has led the way on a lot of the key areas,” he continued. “Nintendo allowed any developer to self-publish since day one on WiiWare. Recently, the policies have become increasingly flexible, allowing developers to set their own price, put their games on sale when they want, and providing a free Unity license to all developers.”
Adelman believes that his ex-employer Microsoft has the most catching up to do, but even its annoyingly named ID@Xbox programme showed signs of improvement this year at Gamescom. It seems, then, that the biggest winners are independent developers themselves, as all three manufacturers tussle over securing the biggest games for their systems.
[source nintendolife.com]
Comments 29
Hmmm I don't think it's helping, we've already seen comments such as Indiestation4 and needing to find a balance between indies and AAAs on the PS Blog... Of course it's a good thing in general!
Once they get the balance right then yeah, but so far the first party has lacked severely which is a shame as in the past Sony have had in my opinion always gotten both a great amount of 1st party and then the other stuff.
Anyway next year is when things truly begin.
This gen will start to truly impress players eager for big titles from 2015 onwards. I'm glad that the indies are here to close the gap for the time being. Sony and MS had to launch the systems seeing that the last gen was already going for way too long — but, at the same time, developing time for big budget titles increased by leaps and bounds. If it weren't for the strong indie scene and for consumer interest on remastered titles there would be very few games to justify a new gen at this point. Big games will come in time.
"I really commend Sony HQ for giving Adam the reins"
I wonder if this is a little dig at Nintendo as unfortunately they didn't seem to trust him to do the same at Nintendo and shut him out from social media etc. He was actually someone at Nintendo with gumption like the old execs used to have (Howard Lincoln and co) so it's a real shame that they lost him.
Sony have done very well in this regard and I'm glad they are pursing indies. Otherwise we'd have literally nothing to play on Vita!
@Punished_Boss Oh, I'm surprised you didn't go "This isn't Nintendo Life!" . Lol
@XFsWorld NO! I didn't look at the source! Well someone noticed the dark side!
Honestly fed up with Indies this, Indies that... lets just talk about games
It's being told that the latest indie platformer with retro 8 bit graphics is the best game ever is the problem. Especially when it turns out to be dull, repetitive and an hour long.
@N711 Yeah, I see what you mean, the whole distinction is blown out of proportion. I find the differentiation between AAA and Indie artificial and basically a bait thrown by the industry that everyone is more eager than they should to bite. We should be more worried if a game is worth our time and money or not, instead of labeling them this or that.
Not to mention that AAA is basically an excuse to charge 60 bucks for a game based only on production values in spite of its quality.
Another issue is that we're all constantly screaming for MORE 30+ HOURS CONTENT even thought most of us are already drowning in our backlogs. It doesn't seem to me that there is a drought of games in the market by any extent, but people are constantly anxious about new releases. They will come when they come, I personally don't get the urge.
@fchinaski Totally agree with this. A long running time does not make a game great — in fact, in my experience, it tends to become padding for the sake of padding. Give me a tightly orchestrated experience that will tempt me to restart straight away, rather than a slog that I won't even finish in the first place.
Its all good news. We just need quality control. AAA will start making you poor from Oct/Nov.
There's a lot of confusion regarding what's indie and what's not as well, which only goes to show how arbitrary the term is. I've seen people calling Child of Light indie when it's made by a small(ish) team at Ubisoft — not "indie" by any stretch of imagination.
@SimonAdebisi. THIS. Quality control is key. People forget that the DSiWare store, for instance, was basically indie only — but it's almost all a big pile of junk/shovelware. In fact, Nintendo is pretty lame at quality control for small third party efforts, especially when you think of how polished their 1st party products are.
@get2sammyb aye, of all the 'big/AAA' titles since PS4 launch I've only really really enjoyed Second Son, started it and finished it twice in 10 days or so.
Ugh.....ANOTHER article on this site about how genius Sony is for having indie games? Snore.
How is this news? Is this just Sammy being bored, trying to start another "AAA vs Indie" discussion in the comments section?
Let half the people here say thay Sony's doing a great job, blah, blah. Let 30% say that the PS4 needs more AAA games, blah, blah (I am in this camp). And let the last 20% say that we need to all just get along, blah, blah.
Now let's move on to articles about actual interesting news.
@Godsire- So if this article by Sammy doesn't interest you or it bothers you why click on it in the first place. With a lot of game studios closing down or struggling to finish there games it helps having these indie devs to either fill the void or give other bigger studios ideas for there games. There're so many people complaining about having too much indie focus but without those indie devs we wouldn't be getting games like No Mans Sky. I for one feel its great that Sony and Microsoft are really supporting them as the industry needs these studios as they bring alot of originality and innovation by taking risks other AAA developers or publishers could or would. But thats my opinion and you're entitled to yours. I just don't understand why people click on an article read it and then complain about it. Maybe next time you see the word indie or something you don't like in the title don't bother reading it.
@WARDIE
Oh yea, the one minute I spent to read this article really set me back. Lol. Besides, I am free to speak my mind just like you are. So if you don't like my opinions, nobody is forcing you to read them.
Also your comment is typical nonsense. Indie studios aren't giving bigger publishers ideas. It's the other way around. You think those indie platformers, for example, created that genre? Of course not. AAA games did back in the day. Ever hear of Mario Bros.? And that's just one example. Just bc you slap some 8-bit graphics on a game, make it very difficult, give little to no story, make it last only a few hrs., & put a $15 price tag on it (instead of $60) doesn't make it innovative or unique.
And you have things completely backwards. If there weren't AAA games (or the promise of them in the future), indie developers wouldn't be putting games on the PS4. There wouldn't be a PS4 at all. AAA games & the promise of them in the future are what sells consoles & drives the industry. Not the other way around.
And while I am interested in No Man's Sky too, it's not even out yet & we don't know if it's any good. In fact, we know very little about the game. So let's not start calling that some "innovative" title yet.
@Godsire- AAA didn't exist back in the day of gaming. You think nintendo invented platformers with mario?? Try looking back a bit further to the commodore 64 and spectrum. Where gaming really got going. Most of those games were indie games, until the better ones grabbed a couple of other friends to make their next game, then a couple more. Then before you know it. Oh look electronic arts has shortened its name to EA and become the most hated company on the planet. Both indie and AAA push boundaries and come up with new ideas. But mostly indie would be a fair judgement in terms of original gameplay mechanics. And we know enough about no mans sky to know that it is very innovative, in programming terms and the way about which they have generated the whole universe. Even if you can only walk around taking photos that game will be an immense experience like no other.
@hadlee73 we can't all be fine art students like you.
@MoleZandor
I have been playing games longer than most people on this website have been alive. I owned a Commodore 64. And an Atari 2600. Etc. Etc. So I know that Super Mario Bros. didn't invent gaming or platformers, in general. I was trying to make a point.
@MoleZandor
Well we can't be a person who settles for poor graphics from lazy indie game developers like you.
To each their own.
@hadlee73
I am thinking it's the "butthurt" one.
@Godsire- You were making a point, but I countered your point with my point that AAA didn't invent platformers.
Surely I am not he only one that realizes that the console has been out for less than a year? I am okay with current staples of games. I just wish that new games coming out by new developers would stop calling themselves "indie". It is unnecessary as of right now since anyone can come out with new game.
@get2sammyb anyone who says that length is relative to quality has never played Vanquish.
@Godsire- You don't know what you're talking about obviously. I've been playing games just as long as you so I think I have some idea about the game industry. I have friends that have been making games for over twenty years and they're the ones the who informed me that indies get to take more risks when they create there games which gives other AAA devs inspiration. Most AAA devs just roll out the same games over and over with very little innovation. Just look at COD, Sports games and Assassin's Creed for instance. Im sure you disagree but your Intiteled to your opinion.
@WARDIE
If you really have been playing games as long as you say, you wouldn't need friends that have been "making games for over 20 yrs." (if that's even true) to tell you what you say they tell you.
I am not saying indie developers don't take more risks in games. But just bc they take more risks doesn't mean the games are actually any good or that they "innovate the industry". Some do, but for every one that does, there are 10 indie games that are garbage.
And of course you can give examples of AAA games like COD that just recycle the last year's game. But what about the original COD? Of the first Modern Warfare? Those games were WAY more innovative than sone game like Limbo or Fez. Lol. Not to mention games like Mass Effect, BioShock, Skyrim, etc. Give me a break.
@Godsire- You obviously now all and see all...
@WARDIE
Not really, obviously. I am just saying there is plenty of innovation in larger budget, AAA games. Just because EA, Activision, Ubisoft, etc. have games that are pure cash cows, doesn't mean every game they release is that way.
And when a cash cow series gets started, there is usually some great ideas there or the series wouldn't have made it past the first game or two. Sure the companies milk the hell out of what used to be original ideas, but that's what companies do to try to make $. Doesn't mean we have to buy them.
For ex., I love the original COD, COD2, & the first 2 Modern Warfare games. The rest of the series can blow me. Treyarch sucks & Infinity Ward is a shell of it's former self. Maybe Sledgehammer can do something cool with 'Advanced Warfare', but who knows? If they do, then I will buy COD games again.
In other words, I think the original Modern Warfare, for ex , was a very innovative title & changed FPS to this day. Did Braid do that? Did Journey? Did Limbo? Did Retro City Rampage? Um no. Not even close.
@Godsire- I agree with your comment on COD but you have to admit that indies can take more risks at lower development costs which benefits other more mainstream developeders as they don't have to spend millions only to find out that people didn't like it. I also agree that alot of the indie games are complete rubbish but every now and then we get something really innovative and original.
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