The folks over at Sony Interactive Entertainment love indie developers and publishers. For good reason too, as indies are bringing some amazing games to the PlayStation, such as the incredibly popular Stray. However, indie developers and publishers don’t have the same resources available to them that the really big gaming companies do. This is especially true for brand-new developers.
To try to bridge this gap, PlayStation has initiated several different programs in the past, including creating Indie Spotlight events and adding a PlayStation Indies list to playstation.com. They also highlight indie montages on their social media channels, which helps indie companies gain legitimacy in the eyes of their customers.
Yesterday, July 26, 2022, Sony made an announcement for their newest initiative to help indie developers and publishers. Greg Rice, Head of PlayStation Creators, opened the announcement with the following quote:
“It is our continued goal to make PlayStation the best place to publish and play games of all shapes and sizes.”
Greg Rice, Head of PlayStation Creators
He went on to explain that newly licensed PlayStation developers and publishers can apply for two loaner PS5s to aid in their efforts. Indie companies should apply on their website, and if they are chosen, they will receive one PS5 developer kit and one PS5 testing kit.
Having the desired console is very important to the game development process. Developers need to be able to visualize how the players will be interacting with the game. Then testers go through to make sure everything works smoothly by playing through on the console. For a brand-new company, affording the consoles is a huge chunk of the budget. This initiative could help alleviate that financial burden. It would also help move the entire process faster, as PlayStation would know that the new game was specifically developed for and tested on their newest console.
If you qualify as a licensed indie developer and you are interested in creating your next masterpiece for PlayStation, apply here on their website.
