Today, Sony has formally announced PlayStation Indies. It's what Shuhei Yoshida has been working on since he left his previous post as president of Worldwide Studios. In his new role as Head of Indies Initiative for PlayStation, everyone's favourite executive has been looking after the industry's little guys, culminating in this new program.
Yoshida says the aim with PlayStation Indies is to "spotlight and support the best of the best indie games being published on PlayStation and the entire indie community as a whole". He hopes for the platform to become the "best place to develop, find, and play great indie games".
The initiative will see Sony nurture original games and ideas, as it's done throughout its history. We're already seeing the company embracing smaller, more experimental games; the PS5 reveal event was full of indie titles, as Shu points out.
As part of PlayStation Indies, one new indie game will make its way onto PS Now each month, and it begins with Hello Neighbor coming to the service in July.
It's good to hear the company speak so highly of indies, as there was some concern not too long ago that the company didn't care about them any more. Between this and the number of indies present when unveiling the PS5, we're confident Sony is backing them in a big way going forward.
[source blog.playstation.com]
Comments (33)
So now there’s Nindies and... Pindies? Plindies? Sounds a bit like an STD.
To be fair they did exactly the same thing in the run-up to and the early years of the PS4. I expect this initiative will also provide the early PlayStation plus PlayStation five games.
Oooo, a new Indie on PS Now this month I thought, and clicked the link.
Our Review: 4/10
Ha.
Considering how games like Kena, Stray and Little Devil Inside are looking I think Shu is already off to a winner.
Damn it, I just bought Hello Neighbour for my son a couple of weeks ago!
@nessisonett I like Plindies.
With the exception of a staunch few (Overcooked I'm looking at you), I have never been a fan of many indy games, never tend to scratch much of an itch, and the production value tends to rarely appeal to me, unless the game mechanics are outstanding.
This is a great news, I remember ps4 (and vita) is the best place for indies back then, I hope playstation can nurture indie talent. Some of the best games at ps5 event is indie games like little devil inside, kena, and stray.
@Grindagger
Interesting. Sometimes AAA tent pole games can really disinterest me. For me indies are great at filling in the gaps, and their quality has really improved over the years. I have to say I really bounced off of Overcooked for whatever reason though.
Can't say I'm a fan of heavy involvement with indie studios, it's great in theory as long as there's quality control, but it always seems to devolve into shovelware.
Switch is particularly bad at the moment.
It will be interesting to see what the other 7 indie games they announce today are. So far we’ve had F.I.S.T. and Maquette.
IndieStation is back!
Yes I'm kidding because people complained it was gone and now they ll complain it's back haha
Fine with Indies. They fill the gaps between big releases.
But focus on AAA games more. Not paying $600 to end up with 4 months full of only Indies.
Nonsense drives me crazy on the Switch, and that was only $300
Positive move. Hopefully might start to counter the increasingly regular Switch timed exclusive/extra content in this area...hope this extends to Indies ability to apply for sales etc. Seen some indies/ publishers mention communication on that front has been very poor with Sony heavily curating sales...seen a number of wishlisted indies from 2019 & even '18 go on sale everywhere else bar the psn this year! Supposedly the eshop has a far easier method of applying for sales.
And they need to sort out the PS Blog!
Away from Sony first parties,don't tend to get many AAA titles these days...too many live service,mtx bloatware.
@Ryall Exactly what I thought, I just hope most oftem will be somewhat decent, and not just serve as an excuse for giving them out instead of an AAA game for ps5.
Oh god does this mean we have to put up with more "we're being so whacky and retro here!" blocky, 8 bit level crap that you wouldn't even have paid money for 20 years ago? 😞
@Ryall You took the words out of my mouth. I love indies, but Sony did this same initiative at the beginning of the PS4 lifecycle to fill the void in the library. Then they abandoned it after a few years. If there gonna do this they need to continue it and not stop once they reach the sales system wise that they want.
Indy games do nothing for me. They are enlarged mobile phone games.
Sounds good, but how it will work? Exclusive indies? PS5 First indies?
I will like to see a hard push on 2º party exclusive deals on medium size indie devs and not just a bunch of shovelware games.
Indie games are always crappy. Xbox has promoted this too. I could care less about Indie games.
Indies were a HUUUUGE part in the ps4 this gen for me. It makes me so happy to see they are continuing their support for them! Cant wait to see what 2021 holds!
@Sebatrox Yeah that’s not bad but I feel like it’s a bit of a tongue twister! -ay and -in somewhat run into each other but I can’t think of anything better so I guess you win 😂😂
Great, but like...can we have Indies as free titles on PS+ again? I'm real tired of only getting old AAA offerings that I either already purchased or had no interest in ever playing.
At least Erica is going to be free in July but...(sigh) I already bought it.
@Tc93 So you care a little.
@Grindagger @SamiFranco @Tc93 Totally the opposite here. My top three games so far this year are all indies. They’re getting better and better; just need to find the gems among the rocks.
Sony + Indie = Sindie
Sounds like Cindy. 🤣
Hopefully LRG, SRG, eastsoftasia, Red Art Games, etc will keep providing the physical release of PS5 Indie games.
@Tc93
I played a 92/100 score indie game on PS4.
And it was Portal Knights
The Best Indie game i have ever played. 👍
And i played it in physical as well.
@doctommaso You may not be wrong. But I'm not a fan of what is basically the digital version of bargain bin hunting.
Spending hours looking at, and reviewing a bunch of indy games that likely 9 out of 10 will not be appealing to me, would almost certainly make me feel like I could be doing more constructive things with my time.
@Grindagger you ever play Guacamelee?
@Boucho11 Yep, thoroughly disliked it.
@Grindagger That’s fair. I tend to gravitate toward indies with some positive reviews rather than examine every release; from there, I can pretty much instantly tell from a quick YouTube clip or even some screenshots whether I’m going to like the game or not. I still turn down far more indies than I play.
@doctommaso To each their own. I have friends who swear by Indies. I see the appeal, it's just not appealing to me most of the time.
Indies tend to be a particular mechanic or narrative repeated through an entire experience, and probably on a budgeted production value.
As an example of something that did it right for me, was overcooked, but only because I had a bunch of friends to play it with, and it was daft, straight up fun. 90% of indies I play are tired, boring, or just the same stuff regurgitated in a different skin. But I digress, I just find AAA titles to be more appealing, and deeper experiences overall.
@Grindagger I can totally respect that. I think because I grew up in the age of Atari with very repetitive but fun simple graphical games, I can find a lot of enjoyment in titles with well executed mechanics but without frills, a story, etc. And don’t get me wrong, I certainly enjoy some of the big budget games, too.
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