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Sony claims that it’s “discovered the secret” behind getting indies to work with them: “don’t be jerks”.
Discussing how it plans to get indie developers on board for PS4 in the latest issue of EDGE, SCEA account support manager Nick Suttner explained that the platform holder had been “fairly indie-friendly for a while now on paper, allowing self-publishing on PSN for more than five years.
“In the beginning we did a pretty poor job at explaining this, so we’ve spent the last 18 months putting the message out there that we’re a very open, easy platform holder to work with. At the same time, we’ve examined the process through the eyes of an indie, eliminating every roadblock and fee that we can along the way.
“The indie PSN content and announcements you’ve seen so far this year are a direct reflection of those efforts. We’ve discovered the big secret behind indies wanting to work with you is this: don’t be jerks.”
Suttner’s comments appears to be making a jab at Microsoft’s prior approach to indie development and its policies.
Top-tier indie developers Phil Fish and Team Meat have previously criticised Microsoft for their support for indies, with the latter suggesting it won’t work with Microsoft “ever again” following the lack of support it received for Super Meat Boy.
Sony showcased a variety of indie titles during its E3 press conference in June when it invited indie developers onto the stage.
“PR in particular is a pretty important thing to indies, and you really need to find time to do it – or find money to pay someone else to,” Suttner continues. “With so many games and so many platforms competing for everyone’s time, indies need to find the line of communication to their potential audience.
“Nothing is sadder than a game someone spent five years working on not finding an audience because the developer didn’t spend any of that time getting people excited about it.”
Microsoft is set to announce new policies on self-publishing during Gamescom later this month.
Source: EDGE #257
