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Forums - Sony Discussion - Should Sony market Indie games more?

Prior to the launch of the PlayStation 4 at E3 2013, Sony made a big push to sell the PS4 as THE definitive console for indie game developers. Its PC-like hardware and out-of-the-box engine support made it very easy for developers to make games for it. If that wasn't enough, they also stuck it to Microsoft one more time by allowing indies to Self-publish on PS4 (Something the Xbox One didn't allow until a few months later). For a while, it seemed like the PS4 was the go-to non-PC platform for indie game developers, from exclusives, console exclusives, or even just the best version of the game, PS4 seemed to have it all.

But in recent years, Sony seems to have a different attitude towards indies. Indie games still regularly come to PS4, it's huge user-base of almost 100 million, means it still gets a ton of them. But Sony recently has been downplaying indie games on the system. They haven't shown them at E3 for quite a while, and the most they'll do these days, is put out a trailer for them on their YouTube Channel. Compare this to Microsoft, which runs trailers for indie games alongside their bigger titles at their E3 press conferences. Or Nintendo, who not only highlights indies at E3, but also has a series of Direct-like presentations dedicated to them each year.

Rarely do you see Sony nab a neat PS4 exclusive or Console exclusive from indies anymore, and in some recent cases, the PS4 version comes out last. It does seem like Sony has shifted most of its marketing towards AAA games. Question is, with both Microsoft and Nintendo outbiding them for indie attention now, should Sony do more to emphasize indies agian. And if so, how will Sony's indifferent attitude towards indies affect them on PS5?
 


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I don't see much of a point in doing that. Indies profit from exposure of their games the most, the platform owners not so much.
At the end of the day 99% of indie games will release on all platforms. Sometimes they are timed exclusive on PS4 or on Switch or on X1 but in the end you can pretty much be sure that you can play them all eventually. The exceptions are very very rare.




Nah.
Indie games simply don't matter very much in the big picture. They are not a system seller. You can get them on most platforms, some people enjoy them but they're not enough of a big deal so that Sony would want to pour their marketing millions into them. Heck, sometimes it feels like they don't even put their full marketing weight behind their AAA exclusives either. Besides, word of mouth and users on the internet are doing very much of the marketing nowadays.



Ka-pi96 said:
Nope. They should market things that will actually sell consoles and benefit them.

So just focus on people who already makes big games and disregard the future developers? Doesn't sound too smart imo.



KLXVER said:
Ka-pi96 said:
Nope. They should market things that will actually sell consoles and benefit them.

So just focus on people who already makes big games and disregard the future developers? Doesn't sound too smart imo.

If they want to be the future they should join the future... the people who make big games.

No. Indies dont need more spotlight. Actually, they need to be contained, neutered, population controlled or they multiply like super rodents in a Behavioral Sink Experiment, and become an unstoppable disease...

/shivering at sight of the indie ridden PC corpse

O the humanity!



Hunting Season is done...

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Yes, yes they should.