Sony Computer Entertainment have announced their plans to cover costs for exhibitors at the Indie Game Area of this year’s Tokyo Game Show—whether or not their game is set to release on a Sony console.
SCE is covering the exhibition costs for the Indie Game Area at TGS 2014. Get your applications in now! http://t.co/UpiBJGxouz
— Brad Douglas (@kazamatsuri) May 28, 2014
I should point out that just because we’re picking up exhibition costs doesn’t mean we have any say in what’s exhibited. That’s all TGS.
— Brad Douglas (@kazamatsuri) May 28, 2014
That said though, we don’t care if the game is on a PlayStation platform or not. The more indie games, the better! Just bring cool stuff!
— Brad Douglas (@kazamatsuri) May 28, 2014
The above tweets are from Brad Douglas, a representative from Sony who is responsible to global third-party relations, and demonstrate just how big a standing in the industry independent game developers now hold.
Over the course of the past several years, independent gaming has gone from having a small but passionate audience to finding mainstream popularity and recognition. Sony’s move to foster this sort of development follows on from their continued attempts to make the Playstation brand a home for independent studios, something that has been a focus for several years.
While Sony have been quick to state that there is no expectation for studios taking advantage of their offer to develop for a Playstation console, the fact that they are so aggressively going after the goodwill of the independent scene at large makes their intentions quite clear. From their high-profile move to secure Jonathan Blow’s follow-up to Braid, The Witness, as a time-exclusive for the Playstation 4, to their dogged attempts to bring Minecraft to Sony consoles, one thing is for sure—Sony are very serious about indie gaming on the Playstation.
[via Gamasutra]