Sony: “Every developer is a publisher”


Agostino Simonetta, Senior Account Manager of Publisher and Developer Relations at SCE Europe, revealed a few details on Sony’s viewpoint regarding self publishing. He said that self publishing on the PS4 can be fostered by providing a level playing field for developers by maintaining relationships and removing hurdles, and most importantly, treating developers as publishers.

In his words,”Every single individual developer is a publisher as far as we’re concerned. We don’t separate, we don’t segregate indies from traditional publishers.”

On the PS4, according to Simonetta, self publishing Indies will have control over their game’s release date and associated promotion. However, the objective qualities of the games will be a deciding factor in grant of such liberties to the developers.

“For us, it’s key that each and every one of the companies working on PlayStation can come and talk to us at any time they want or need,” Simonetta said.This policy is followed in the offices of SCE Europe where publishers are welcome to discuss their games face to face with Sony.

Speaking on the selection process for Indie games, he said,”In the past we used to provide developers feedback on the gameplay of their game. We still do that today if you want. You need to a tick a box and say ‘I’d be happy to listen to what Sony has to say.’ If you like it you can implement it in your game, if you don’t you can completely disregard it.”

There have been over 500 self published games on the PS4 till date. The self published games that have been announced for the PS4 are Octodad: The Dadliest Catch, Jonathan Blow’s The Witness, and Galak-Z by Skulls of the Shogun dev 17-bit.

What do you think? How much do you like Indie games? Do let us know.