We keep hearing about the ease of developing a game with Sony on the PlayStation 4, but really, how much does it cost an indie developer who’s not exactly full of extra cash to get a game to market? Multiple sources who recently spoke to Polygon claim that a single PS4 dev kit can cost a team $2,500, which isn’t exactly chump change. However, these same sources also state that Sony hasn't asked anyone to buy a kit up to this point, as the company is essentially handing them out “like candy.”
Currently, game-makers are seeing PS4 dev kits arrive at their doorstep without charge for a limited period of one year. It sounds like favored developers are the ones getting the attention, but up to this point, there are no known studios that have been charged.
"All the indies I know got them for free," said one developer. "Sony has been amazing about kits and development thus far."
Why be so generous to multiple developers? According to a Sony spokesman, the company prefers to be flexible with its development rules.
"With self-publishing, we keep things really flexible for developers and give them lots of options, including funding through the Pub Fund, which is back-end funding paid upon completion of the game, we waive patch fees for indies and all digital titles and we embrace new business models like F2P, episodic and subscriptions,” the rep said. “We've had more than 500 games self-published on PSN."
Microsoft recently confirmed that it too will allow for self-publishing, but at this time, little is known about the company’s stance on free dev kits.
