Sony has announced its indie-focused Hero Project is expanding to India following its successes in China. Teams in the country can submit their projects now, and if chosen, they shall receive mentorship, access to Sony's internal resources, recoupable development funding, marketing opportunities, and the chance for PlayStation to publish the game itself.
To qualify, a studio must be based in India and registered as a legal entity, and then sign up with PlayStation Partners. A minimum of $100,000 is handed to successful developers, and Sony is looking to support PS5, PSVR2, and PC titles. In a press release, Sony execs Hector Fernandez and Radhika Thakur explained: "As part of our evolving journey to ensure that PlayStation remains the best place to play, we’re committed to developing regional incubator programs capable of identifying new and diverse developers worldwide. The India Hero Project is fueled by this commitment and our belief in the Indian gaming market."
The company wishes to "lower the barrier of entry and showcase the most incredible talents emerging from India" via its mentorship and funding options. Over in China, the Hero Project has successfully brought to market popular indie games like F.I.S.T.: Forged in Shadow Torch and ANNO: Mutationem, with Lost Soul Aside still to come. "While space is limited, we want to welcome new voices, ideas, and experiences from the Indian Game Development Community."
[source sonyinteractive.com]
Comments 17
Great to hear. Always good to see support of smaller developers, especially in less explored territories who will bring different life experiences into their games.
That's really cool can't wait to see what comes of it even though I'm still waiting for Lost Soul from the other Hero Project 😭😭😭
As someone from India, I would love to see some good games resulting from this initiative. Thanks Sony, and all the best to the applicants!
So much so for " Sony doesn't believe in small games, only makes AAA games" narrative. Although Playstation Studios may have moved away from those types of games, glad to see the rest of SIE still believes in these kind of experiences.
This is really exciting. Technology in India is booming so would be great to see some fresh gaming ideas or different ways of thinking coming from there.
Great stuff. I’ve got to think the China hero project was a success then by Sony’s standards.
I hope they start expanding the project more rapidly & open it up to other countries.
Cool! I hope the one or other day one psplus indie gem will come of it.
Instead of acquisitions, I'd rather see projects like this. Hope it works out for the Indian devs like how it worked for the Chinese devs
@jimbouk I think there is truth in what you say but at the same time Sony tend to support the larger indies, signing up games like Stray and Kena and even when they are smaller like F.I.S.T. they are still bigger in scope. The original story from a few developers about Sony not supporting indies well accounted for this and said it was really a problem for the tiny ones that aren’t Sony’s favourites.
Regardless, as I said above, this is a good initiative
But people online told me Sony hates indie games. I don't think Sony hates indies, more so they'd rather support indie developers with funding and marketing than make those games themselves
They marketed games like Kena, Stray and Sifu in State of Play. Have began offering indies like Tchia and Humanity on PS Plus day one. And China Hero Project which has been showing promise as Sony invests more money into development, even publishing some titles
Sony doesn’t “hate” indie games. That’s a false narrative. What Sony does not want to do is invest their studios into making small games. They will partner with smaller studios though.
I saw this earlier. This is exactly the sort of initiative I’d like to see more of. I’ve made a few comments recently on here about hoping to see this form of support from platform holders.
Is this programme only currently available in India, or do Sony offer, or plan to offer this, elsewhere?
@Vacuumator China was first and now it's India in these 2 areas specifically. If it does well again I am sure it will expand to other areas that we don't really get to see make or publish games.
Says a lot. While it's good it does say. We can help other studios but we can't offer them ourselves as first party. Even though Insomniac did Song of the Deep? Obsidian Pentiment?
Still it's great to see support in India for sure. Console prices are what they are but if other regions get dev support it's great to see regardless I hope these devs have some great games in mind like many others we have seen from other regions making some surprising stuff.
But Japan Studio nah. Like I know it had a lot of studios under that umbrella but all of them and the remaining at Asobi like wow. Pixel Opus though yeah that sucks. Like Housemarque were a partner and worked with PlayStation consoles mostly then got to make a big game. Not all ideas are great execution or appeal to a big enough audience but sometimes you need a small audience to build it up. Sometimes you need that small audience for a few extra sales. Like I'm not buying Sony's big games I have no interest but I did their less notable titles because that's all I care for is more different experiences not the big one's structures and plans.
I mean Lucid had Bizarre Creations devs and made Geometry Wars 3 so they clearly know what other things did and didn't work. Same with Playground having some too. Did they forget Blur flopped and did the same with Destruction Allstars forgetting oh yeah a vehicular combat game to appeal to casuals is a bad idea, it isn't going to sell to casuals even with a particular artstyle. I saw it flopping immediately because anyone that knows the casual audience knows it wasn't going to appeal to them. Not vehicles, not the direction it was. It was a cool idea but a stupid risk, but Twisted Metal had a better chance in tone, brand name, structure and more than Destruction Allstars did.
@Keyblade-Dan Also still waiting on Lost Soul, hopefully no more delays!
But the internet keeps telling me Sony hates indies and only wants Blockbusters on their platform
Great to see game development outside the traditional US-Europe-Japan bloc getting more exposure. Once the India HP takes off, I also want to see Hero Projects in Africa.
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