With the Xbox One now set to support self publishing (well, ‘some time’ after launch), the battle is on for indie support. The latest move comes from Sony, who has announced plans to host quarterly indie developer events at its London offices from this year.
Talking to Develop, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe senior account manager Agostino Simonetta explained that the events will be open to the entire development community and will offer the latest updates on the PS4, PS3 and Vita, as well as discuss such things as how the PSN is performing and the size of the install base. While details and dates have yet to be fully finalized, the aim is to kick off the scheme in September.
Simonetta said:
You know we do these things very regularly with all our partners, but with the indie community, it is so vast and they are spread out, that it is hard for me to go and work with developer days in the Middle East. So while we do these things, we want to make sure it is that on a regular basis. With the great success we are having actually of indie developers registering, we are seeing incredible numbers of new companies coming to the platform. There is a real sense that PS4 – and Vita as well, PS3 still has a long life – that this is a great opportunity for them to come back to console.
We are really accelerating and changing the way we approach this. So before was more of a narrow cast, now there is a real opportunity for us to go what I call broadcast – a lot more visibility to be able to answer the questions.
The number of indies registering to develop for the PS4, as well as Vita and PS3, is apparently unlike anything the company had seen before, Simonetta said.
I can tell you I have been there for four years, and one of my colleagues has been in third-party relations for ten years, and we’ve never seen anything like this. And this is not just PS4, it applies to Vita and PS3 as well.
For more on indie developers, stick to PSLS, as we have a few treats in the works.
