Greg Rice, former vice president of business development at Double Fine, has announced his new role at Sony Interactive Entertainment. The industry veteran left Tim Schafer's studio in the months following Microsoft's acquisition, but he's now formally said what he'll be up to next.
In a tweet, Rice states that he'll be joining PlayStation as global head of indie accounts. This basically means he'll be looking after relationships between SIE and independent developers. "I’ll be managing all independent developer and publisher accounts and building new initiatives to support indies big and small from all over the world," he explains.
It's a role that makes some sense for Rice. Double Fine had been making steps into publishing before Microsoft bought the company, and that side of the business now seems unlikely to continue. At Sony, he'll be able to work with a huge variety of indie partners on getting their games onto PS4 and, eventually, PS5. He'll be working with Shuhei Yoshida, who recently stepped down from president of Worldwide Studios to spearhead Sony's refreshed interest in independent games.
Exciting times ahead, then. We're looking forward to seeing all kinds of weird and wonderful titles popping up on PlayStation in the future.
[source twitter.com]
Comments 12
Playstation Indies, part 2
He looks a bit like Jimi Goodwin, frontman of the band Doves. Or maybe it's just me.
also, Christian Svensson, that had former roles include senior VP at Capcom from 2005 to 2013, where he was responsible for Capcom's North and South American consumer software businesses, join SIE and will take on the role of head of global portfolio...
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2019-12-11-greg-rice-christian-svensson-join-sony
Agree with the article this appointment & Shuhei Yoshida's,will hopefully see some improvements with regards to Sony's indie publishing efforts.
For starters finally adopting IARC classification like most other rivals have had for years. And in turn,might start allowing for simultaneous releases across psn regions...the EU/Aussie psn store region has become a lottery for delayed or completely MIA releases behind every other storefront.
Also situations like Axiom Verge 2 where the original was a day 1 ps4 release,but like several indies are now having timed exclusives on Switch & any ps4 version isn't confirmed 'til months later.
Best name ever greg.indies are incredible.bastion.salt and sinctuary.blasphemous.ruiner etc.word up son
Will be really interesting to see how the aquisitions of double fine and ninja theory in particular will impact those companies identities going forward. Double fine had carved an interesting niche for itself prior to aquisition, so lets see!
That sounds really nice. I'm sure he's very happy.
He saw the writing on the wall at double fine after Microsoft brought them and jump ship to Sony as soon as possible he a very smart man.
@Acquiescence You are not wrong.
More indies - woo hoo!
@Rob_230 - I expect the avatar store will be brimming with new clothing and props...
https://twitter.com/the_ghostmen/status/1204809808324571137?s=19
The dude looks like jack tretton.
@Robocod the indie focus is verry important for ps5 because the free psplus games.
Shuhei taking on a smaller role is also a confirmation bloodborne 2 is coming.
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