While it’s usually Xbox Game Pass that gets praise from devs for small games nowadays, there is one studio that has credited their success to PlayStation Plus recently.
That studio would be Ghost Ship Games, and the game in question would be cooperative wave shooter Deep Rock Galactic.
As reported by PlayStation Lifestyle, Ghost Ship Games CEO Soren Lundgaard made this statement to investors during the earnings call made by Embracer Group, who owns Ghost Ship Games:
“We broke all our records on player numbers and revenue. We entered into PlayStation Plus and very, very fast, ten million players claimed the game, started playing, enjoying the new season content, buying the cosmetic DLCs, and just had a really good time together. And this propelled the Deep Rock Galactic IP even further into closing into mainstream.”
Programs like PlayStation Plus and Game Pass have merit as a form of promotion and support for smaller games. While Ghost Ship Games can’t call themselves an indie studio anymore, they were an indie when they started work on Deep Rock Galactic. Similarly, we had covered how Pentiment, which is a small game but comes from a bigger studio in Obsidian, owes its existence from the existence of Game Pass.
The nature of a game subscription lends to them being a good support for smaller games, whether made by independent studios or not. While the big companies don’t disclose the full details, we do know that these studios can get deals for funding for their games up front. Subsequently, the fact that gamers will just see their games as freebies opens them up to trying them, and that increases the possibility that they are discovered. In fact, it’s potentially better than if you released a free demo for your game, because a game subscriber could feel the need to get the value out of their subscription by trying out as many of these games as they can.
While Pentiment’s virtues are easily discovered when you give it a chance, the situation is different with Deep Rock Galactic. Deep Rock Galactic is a full 3D cooperative shooter, that is best experienced with other players, and also has a steep beginner curve. Even if you bought the game, there is no guarantee that you will enjoy it.
And so, Ghost Ship Games seems to have enjoyed something extra by having their game on PlayStation Plus. Mind, Deep Rock Galactic is actually also on Game Pass. As Soren explained, the game didn’t pick up momentum until it came up on PlayStation Plus.
While Game Pass is generally considered the superior game pass subscription today, in this case, PlayStation Plus has achieved something that Game Pass did not.
