Ahead of the next-generation console launch, PlayStation has unveiled a new indie-driven initiative and the first nine games it’s elevating as part of a new drive to “spotlight and support the best of the best indie games being published on PlayStation.”
It’s a strong show of support for independent developers going into the next console generation, and one that company leadership says aims to make the PlayStation ecosystem “the best place to develop, find, and play” indie games.
Right now, that means that it has put its new PlayStation Indies initiative to work on highlight nine indie games headed to PlayStation 4 or PlayStation 5 like Maquette, Where the Heart Is, and Recompile. Another arm of the PlayStation Indies program aims to bring more indie games to PlayStation’s cloud-based subscription service PlayStation Now. That push will first see Hello Neighbor launch on PS Now this month, with new games to be announced every month moving forward.
“The indie community is increasingly important for the future of the video game industry, as AAA game development has grown so financially demanding that big companies are finding it harder to take risks to invest in new concepts that may or may not work,” writes PlayStation Indie head and former SIE president Shuhei Yoshida.
“We trust indie developers with strong vision will continue to bring ideas that have never been tried before, creating whole new genres of games and advancing the art and meaning of video games.”
All of this is summarized in a short blog post announcing the new program, but unfortunately there doesn’t look to be a lot of information on PlayStation plans to execute on some of the programs goals quite yet, or on how indie developers can apply to get in on the action. However Yoshida notes that more details will be shared down the road.