"Sony makes almost impossible for indie developers"

In an interview with 9lives, Tale of Tales (developers of The Path) talk freely about their view on the gaming world. When talking about Sony's plan where the company would assist small indie-developers in creating games, Tale of Tales stated that this was not exactly true.

"Things are way more complicated than that. Firstly, one department said we had to get approved as a Sony developer. When we went to another department to get that approval, they turned us down because our projects were not commercial enough. We found that a bit funny since their funding project was specifically for small indie-developers," Michaël Samyn (co-founder) said.

"All in all, Sony is a huge bureaucratic corporation where the departments work separately while Microsoft is way easier in that regard. Microsoft are a bit more centralized and they welcome you to develop for their console".

Aside from this, Tale of Tales also talked about their favourite games ("Noby Noby Boy is game of the year for me" - Auriea from Tale of Tales / "Ico and Silent Hill 2 were amazing pieces of gaming"), their appreciation for Nintendo's new patent, where the console will allow you to skip certain game parts ("Very good idea. It will allow other people to enjoy the immersion, atmosphere of games too. I hope Nintendo can implement it in a decent way.")

[Trollimite]

so random people cant come in and make sucky games!

you have to maintain a sertain level of quality!

if they would just let anyone with money and the ability to develop games it would be a disaster.

although i am looking foward to playing jizz my pants samurai: quest for booty

[ChickeyCantor]

However Sony is also being lame on this part.
Noby Noby Boy? Sony would never approve such thing if they knocked on their door with it.

Its pretty much a double standard.
Same with their other example such as flow, its pretty much something you can(could?) play online as a flash game.

[TOO PAWNED]

yup psn is not iphone, if you want to put garbage somewhere you can do it on iphone

[HDgamer]

That's why the wii is getting shovel ware.

[ultimolu]

Well, excuse Sony for having high standards and wanting quality games on their system.

Oh freaking noes.

[Strikepackage Bravo]

even if they were stealing babies from nic units of hospitals boiling them and feeding them to snakes.

Making small developers jump through hoops to get their games sold does not insure quality, it just insures indi developers will have a hard time getting their games up and sold on PSN.

XBL community games are games that people like you and me, or anyone else who knows XNA, can easily put up games for sale on a world class network and get a cut of the cash. This is an excellent service MS provides, how can anyone not agree with that? Only the most diehard fanboy sees this as another thing to knock MS on. Sony should do the same.

[Johnny Rotten]

^^^ most Xbox community games are of low production value and worthless but that's just my opinion. It's good to support indie devs but the amount of shovelware that's put onto the arcade makes the rare gems seems lost.

[Time_Is_On_My_Side]

From my understanding you would have to pay an anual fee of $100.00 weather you're a developer or not and on top of that according to you, have to pay for the games as well?

From letting anyone to create games, how many of them are original or even worth the money?

[StanLee]

Microsoft are very welcoming. They only f*@% you on the back end when money is involved.

[gaffyh]

@1.5 - What do you mean you people?!!

Sony just announced a service to pay devs for their games if they are good didn't they? Anyway it's good to have some standards.

[Guitarded]

Giving indie dev's a chance to practice, even on a crap game, will produce better games later. Seems to be where Microsoft is headed with XNA. It would appear that Sony are only looking to line their pockets now and Microsoft are training the next generation of dev's to line their pockets later.

[ultimolu]

Yes, because the same thing doesn't happen when it comes to the other side.

This is not making excuses. Sony has always had high standards. That's why they took a huge risk with the PS3 and delivered quality game after quality game.

[evrfighter]

Substitute Sony for M$ and ultimolu would be the very first poster in here crying about fairness and equality for all dev's.

quite hilarious lol

[ultimolu]

Because you know so much about me.

Yeah, sure.

[Headshot81]

is not that MS caters indie devs by being slightly more forgiving, or even sony for that matter. These are companies that are based on profit. the devs who present their "profitable" idea must be approved by the company, so that both parties stand on common ground and agree that money can be made from this idea. Basically "if doesn't make cents, it doesn't make sense"

[a_squirrel]

@1

Exactly :)

[wanderofys]

The Path was a brilliant game and Sony is missing out on this developer.

If any developer has a right to say this, it's Tale of Tales.

I'm very shocked that Sony would feel this way about Tale of Tales, considering Sony systems are where you usually get the really unusual Atlus games.

You can't just accept anyone to make games for your system, but you should at least look at what they've done. If Sony didn't like what this company has done, I may have to reconsider my opinion that Sony was where I go when looking for more dark, unusual, and interesting video games.

[JohnnyBadfinger]

Halo was first presented to Sony but rejected, and is now one of the best selling games of all-time.

Sony dont understand what quality is, and sure as hell cant see the money slapping them in the face.

But as history has shown, games that Sony rejects end up becoming console pushes on other consoles. MGS, Killzone, and Uncharted while they look good, aint pushing anyone to buying a PS3. Whereas the name 'Halo' can push a million consoles in a day.

Disagree all you want but Im right, disagreeing proves it.

[MazzingerZ]

Yeah, and Bill Murray could have been Anibal Lecter but he rejected the roll...

This is about an unhappy Indie developer that couldn't deliver a game of the same quality as current PSN titles, SONY is not going backwards to make a buck

I'd like to see the game that dev is talking about, release it on PC or X360 and show the world what SONY rejected

[UltimateIdiot911]

Are you high? Halo was presented to Sony?? Where did you ever get that idea?
Bungie originally made Halo for Macs. Then Microsoft saw it, bought Bungie and stole Mac's chance to become big in gaming.

I never heard of Tale of Tales till now. There has to be a line for indie devs. I don't want to have to dig my way through sacks of BS before I find the needle.

[Redempteur]

AND why the hell is that a problem again ?
i have seen a lot of originals AND exclusives games on PSN .
They weren't indies games BUT those were good games .. i don't wanna see another clone of collums or space invaders EVEN with direct-x effects ...

Microsoft accepted indies games ONLY because they needed content in their store ... the only good thing that happenned was BRAID .
The others games are ...

On the PSN , games like flow, flower , wipeout , pixel junk eden are well know ..even outside of it .
And don't get me started on THE LAST GUY , or echochrome. and they were just examples ... ( patapon anyone ? )

Sony doesn't want indies games .. they have already several studios working to launch games each month ...

And it's the same reason why the wiiware is only for TRUE develloppers not "indies" .. because they don't need to add so much crap in order to have one gem each year when you can have ( and you have already ) severals studios working to make originals games ( LIT ? MYLIFE AS ..? LOST WINDS ? ect ect )

[Homicide]

"Well, excuse Sony for having high standards and wanting quality games on their system."

Like Haze and Lair right?

[aaron5829]

It's 2009. Where have you been ? Still lauging that these 2 games were flops ?

Are those the only 2 games that you can b1tch about ?

Running out of ideas eh ?

[N4g_null]

Well if you guys just want big name publisher making games for you then I say good luck with that. What this means is your cell will never really get tapped and you simply will not get new talent that wants to make new game. The PS3 will be the sequel king and what you call new ip is more like mods on the PC. The same games over and over just with bigger budgets. I can't see how that is good.

[dktxx2]

A company is only going to let your game on their service if they think it will sell. If Sony doesn't think your game will be profitable, they won't help you out on it. It doesn't mean they aren't ever going to help an indie developer, the developer just has to have a good idea that has a shot of making money. Maybe Sony thought these guy's game just wasn't good enough.

Besides, just because your an indie developer doesn't mean your game can't be marketable.

[ChickeyCantor]

" If Sony doesn't think your game will be profitable, they won't help you out on it"
Then do explain why simple games like flow and crazy nonsensical games like noby noby boy are actually developed?

They don't seem profitable at first sight either.

Im not saying Sony should allow crap, but they aren't really giving the developers a chance. Reading the article in its original language, it just seems Sony is being a hypocrite =).

[RememberThe357]

NO, they're not. I wouldn't. If you don't like any idea your not going to support it. Period.

[Gue1]

That's all I have to say.

[Baka-akaB]

@Sidar

Hum except flow sold decently if my memories aint wrong .

Anyway whatever i say will maybe sound like making excuse for sony , but when i look at an important portion of PSN's smaller offering , i often see games i woulnt be ashamed to buy on discs .

I personally dont subscribe to a trend of saying "eeehhhh it's not bad for a XBL/XNAPSN/WiiWare game , or indie PC/Flash game !" .
If it's good it's good period ... what were the initial funds and goals of the devs , isnt my concern as a customer .

Otherwise as mostly somewhat an otaku , i'd spend more time on the bazillion of doujins games available each year on pc (some even being quite awesome obviously ) , those being of far superior quality in most case than the usual indie console stuff .

That kind of forgiving attitude imo , while it hasnt really hurt home consoles so far , ruined mobile phone gaming for a long time .

So i dont mind Sony giving more interest and focus to games that looks professional , polished and commercial enough , like Wipeout HD , Siren , Trine , Battle fantasia , and digital ports like Burnout or Tekken 5 , ratchet and clank .

Of course PSN also got trash coming through . but just pick the console with the store (and the games of course) more to your liking , what XXX dev may prefer or not is way less relevant than that .

[callahan09]

It's not like "support" grows on trees. It requires resources. People, technology, money, time. They can't just give it away to whoever asks for it, they have to be discretionary about it. If they don't want to support your endeavor, then that's just the way it is. Now, I don't know why Sony wouldn't want to support some endeavors, but if they don't, they don't. If I went to them with a project I am working on right now, I wouldn't EXPECT them to support me. I'd expect to have to prove myself and my project to them before they approve support, to convince them that I'm worthwhile.

[ChickeyCantor]

" Hum except flow sold decently if my memories aint wrong . "

Thats not my point, who said this would have been "profitable" to sony if some indie developer stepped up to sony's door and showed a game like flower?

[mrv321]

Flower is a indie game? So is Linger in Shadows.

Sony have high standards and Microsoft are starting to realise the same... having too much mediocore stuff can make it hard for great games to sell aswell as they expect. PC is where indie should be, generally easy to work with and quite easy to get you thing out to the world.... GOOGLE the ur-quan masters and the best sentence I will use to descripe the game.

'Like Fallout 3 in space'

That's what it feels like to me.

[PieterM]

I have to say that they (in case you haven't read the source) mention flower and noby noby boy as exceptions because they are backed by sony themselves (thatgamecompany from Flower has their office in the Sony Santa Monica studios) and Noby Noby Boy is backed by Namco, which makes it a whole lot easier to get approval for. (it's all in the article though)

[kaveti6616]

Microsoft's community games are mostly garbage. There are a few decent ones among the bunch, but MS should think about either closing down that section completely or getting rid of all the crap. MS provides a lot of choice, but if the choice is mostly crap then it doesn't belong there.

[ChickeyCantor]

@Pieter,
Don't you think that makes matters worse?
I mean sure they don't want indie developers to make "crap" yet they allow a big company do it.

And honestly there is allot of trash on all 3 consoles when it comes to downloadable games, i wonder how the hell those ever got approved.

[RememberThe357]

"I mean sure they don't want indie developers to make "crap" yet they allow a big company do it."

When a "big company" wants to put a game on the PS3 they are financing it with their own money, not Sony's. Sony is telling indi devs that they with cove half of the dev costs if they keep their game exclusive to the PSN. They don't want to pay half the development costs for a crappy idea. So, of course they're going to filter out the ideas that they don't think will work. You can't finance every ones "great idea".

"And honestly there is allot of trash on all 3 consoles when it comes to downloadable games, i wonder how the hell those ever got approved."

That must give you a good idea of how crappy their idea was.

[Baka-akaB]

@sidar

geez you sure gun hard at flower ?

Anyway like RememberThe357 said , if backed up , it's because either someone found those ideas worth it unlike some other competiting indies , or thought it would be worth their while to have it in a catalog , even without good sales .

Like nobi nobi boy . it's author got somewhat of a cult following , so whatever he does on your console is probably good advertising , and maybe , maybe even potential good sales for the project .

It can't be argued either that Nobi nobi boy isnt unique (though indeed crap imo) , and wouldnt be one of those artsy project one feels good to have in his portfolio of titles ... unlike some project of the same caliber by a noname .

[ChickeyCantor]

Baka,
My point is that there is allot of crap on Sony/Ms/Nintendo's downloadable service...
Most of them are sure funded by the big ones themselves. However even you know that if some indie developer tried to push such project at either one of them they would simple be ignored.

And i have nothing against Flower.

No indie would have gotten approval if they showed noby noby boy. LOL

[Baka-akaB]

But , no offense , how is that a point ?
everyone obviously get trash . To some of us Sony's stance at least ensure a level of quality amidst the trash .
I doubt any dev would bother putting up game as huge in size , and a Wipeout HD or Siren , if what was the driving force of the store , was small indie crap .
If they entirely dominated PSN , what would be the point of developping big and costly PSN games ? why not just go hi rez 2d shooters , and indie stuff , then ?
And at most we would only have the occasional Braid level good indie game .

Personally i want more than that

Aslo about nobi nobi boy , you missed my point , even if it was garbage like you said , it's from a name of the industry , a well respected one .
It doesnt matter if it sells , it's good PR to have an artsy product from the Katamari creator , and shows you actually helps unique and creative initiatives .
The game was approved because it's from him , and that's more than enough for a reason.

[ChickeyCantor]

While I acknowledge its just a bizz, it is still a "point" where Sony is just having double standards.
It doesn't matter if its from a bigger company, you still get "trash" on your console. PR or not, not to say this is a fair bizz, it just seems nonsensical towards the indie developers.

"f they entirely dominated PSN , what would be the point of developping big and costly PSN games ? why not just go hi rez 2d shooters , and indie stuff , then ? And at most we would only have the occasional Braid level good indie game . "

Who ever said it should be the one or the other? Or that it should be full of simple projects? I'm not even arguing that.

Take a look at pixeljunk, you can't tell me thats a product made of " big and costly" resources. Yet its there and you could still play a game like that for free on the internet.

I don't have anything against Sony, i bet all 3 companies do it.
Its just the double standards that screw these indie developers.

[Menchi]

I think I'm going to go with the indie devs and small studios that seem absolutely chuffed to be working with PSN, over some random dev that got his game refused by Sony.

Personally, I've played a lot of the interesting, unique and indie games on PSN, and I really can't see where these guys can justify their claims.

Everyday Shooter, Flow[er], PixelJunk, Critter Crunch and a plethora of other titles.

[arsenal55]

Note to self: Don't come to sony with a ****ty looking game thinking you will get approved right away.

[PirateThom]

The thing is, it's not about profitability, it's Sony basically saying, in a nice way, they don't think the game is good enough.

The indie games on PSN, Flower, Riff, whatever, are all published by Sony, because Sony felt they were worthy games. Noby Noby Boy was published by Namco Bandai from an established developer. Sony's new plan is to let developers self publish, but they're still not going to let any old crap on PSN.

[cayal]

umm people...this is business.

If someone comes to you with a sales pitch that is a complete joke and won't sell why would you give them money?
It's an investment on Sony's part to help these indie developers, they're not doing it because they have money to burn.

[Pixel_Addict]

play Flower or maybe and Papaton game. Funny don't see anything like that on XBL. Plently of rehashed arcade games though. Wonder if some indepentent EA or Activition company made those.

[GiantEnemyCrab]

There are plenty of unique non-rehash arcade games on XBL.

[GameGambits]

@ Giant

Like Braid and Braid and Braid? Seriously... the only thing I know I've gotten off of Xbox Live Arcade that I couldn't elsewhere at the time was Braid. Which of course is AMAZING, but others that have been released after are not up my alley for a lot of fun. I didn't like Castle Crashers and the Dishwasher was also meh.

As for this article who cares? I doubt Sony would willingly turn away people with great games or game ideas... that's not how they make money. If Sony rejects you it's because your game sucks...deal with it and make something better.

[mastiffchild]

Or, at least, games they don't think will fit with PSN OR do very well on it for them or the devs. Maube some ideas are just too avant garde? IDK for sure but the bottom line here seems to be that these guys are miffed that at some point along the Sony approval chain (which may well be too long and cumbersome, again, we don't know but that COULD be these guys only real salient point)they got told "no deal".

Hey, if they go elsewhere and make a mint, win awards and go on to great things then that's awesome but it doesn't alter the fact that Sony have every right to refuse funding for whatever reason they see fit-it's the same as pitching on "Dragon's Den" Sony aren't an indie dev charity that grants start up loans are they?

Thing is I'm sure plenty of other devs get turned down elsewhere with their ideas but we don't see them bleating like spoilt kids on N4G, do we? Fair enough Sony might be wrong and the game could be killer stuff but wouldn't the grown up thing be to go and succeed somewhere else rather than give everyone "yah boo suxxx!" on t'interwebz?

Like independent music, cinema and literature the indie games scene is always going to be hit and miss esp for big business. How many fantastic bands wouldn't have got off the ground waiting for the EMIs of this world to catch on to what's new? The fact that up til now the scene has been completely restricted to those in the know on the PC means that Wiiware, PSN and XBLA are fantastic hoovers for the talent out there-but, again, Sony are pretty much testing the waters , for themselves, as far as this goes. So getting knocked back shouldn't make anyone bitter, should it?

Even the stiff that makes it to PSN isn't secured success but, imo, Sony are trying to increase those chances by attempting to weed out as much chaff as they can. XBLA has a more scattershot approach(which could mean more hits or just, y'know, more!)and who's to say when both are in their infancy, which is best?

[Automat]

like I would buy a game from a developer who has Noby Noby Boy as GOTY?? HAHAHA! sell your crap to microsoft or apple, i don't wanna see it.

[Polluted]

It's weird that they would get turned down for not being "commercial" enough. I have a bunch of games off Live and PSN and most of them are really good, but it seems like the least commercial ones are all on PSN.

That's not to say they're any better or worse than the offerings on Live, but to accuse the platform that brought us Flower and Pixeljunk Eden of being to commercially oriented seems a bit...off.

[Mr_iClu7ch]

i bought some and there´s great games on Xbox Live.

To bad sony doesn´t give a chance to people make their games...

[cayal]

Shut up fanboy.

[a_squirrel]

@cayal

Amen brotha!

[Double Toasted]

...aggravate, up and coming game devs, but I honestly like what Sony is doing, quality screening, while I also like what MS is doing, XNA etc. While I'm at it, I'm going to take this time out to congratulate Sony on such premium 1st party software. This is the reason I can't complain or nag Sony for anything, but I damn sure can give Sony fanboys the middle finger.

[sak500]

Look at the fking SDF coming and cleaning SOny's @ss with their tongue as if they are getting paid to do it. SOny are still the same arrogant company as before and when it finally goes kaput then they will realize that they should have come down from their high horses long time back.

Even if they are making mistakes these stupid sonyturds are coming here on n4g and white washing it like eveything sony does is pure goodness.

[commodore64]

Yeah I agree and it's kind of laughable.

It seems that there is a never-ending supply of ps3 users who are paid to damage control, spin the facts, clean up the Sony mess and generally behave like Sony's PR dept.

I hope they get paid well...

[kewlkat007]

No excuses here.....

You really limit the variety and potential for creative games with some of these stupid quality bs restrictions and excuses from some.

Apple sometimes do the same with their store and look at some great apps/games on a jailbroken phone that will never make it to the store.

Nothing wrong with how sony and whoever wanna run their business but, I think, in the long run, you loose out.

Hey just look at games/franchises/dev teams console makers let go or scrapped because of some of the same BS. Some eventually found their way on other platforms and voila.

[Guitarded]

All their separate departments have their heads stuck up their own a$$es. Still the fanboys defend. You dumbsh!ts ever consider that giving indie dev's practice with programming, even a crap game, could help them produce better games later. Sony are only interested in lining their pockets with money now, while Microsoft are training the next generation of dev's to line their pockets later. Still the fanboys defend.

[IcyJoker187]

at least you have the last part of your name right

[Guitarded]

What no real reply? Mocking my screen name. Is that the best you got? You suck as hard as Sony.

[NegativeCreep427]

I will fill in for IcyJoker187 here.

All you have to do is take off your "Anything Sony does is evil and kills cute little puppies" goggles and view Everyday Shooter, Flow, and Flower to immediately disapprove any and all unsubstatiated claims made by this article.

How about that? Is that enough to own yourself?

[Figboy]

yeah. those were the days...

anyway, it doesn't surprise me that Sony isn't so easy to get into business with. they are a company known for quality, premiere products, and the Playstation 3 is no different.

looking at the rather superb quality of titles on the PSN these days (ie, Flower, Pixel Junk Eden, Fat Princess, Siren, Ratchet and Clank Future: Quest for Booty), i'm not surprised that a game like The Path isn't on the system (personally, i think it's a rather interesting, unique game, but i doubt it would be worth it to port it to the PSN, when the audience for it may not be so receptive).

it could easily cost more to port The Path to the PSN than it was to program and release it on Steam.

it's funny, because other indie developers have said the exact OPPOSITE about Sony. the same can be said for Microsoft. some people complain, some people praise. it is, unfortunately, the nature of the industry these days, and it only does nothing but reveal how young and immature the gaming industry STILL is, despite being around for 30+ years.

[therealwillie]

while i agree with your opinion i can't help but think of the other side... dark it may be...
sony i'm sure could put some clause in the contract that says "hey, if your game fails tough, we gave you a chance, we ain't going to pay out for your dev costs" maybe not that harsh, but something similar, its the developer thats taking the chance after all.
seeing as most people research the product they buy, i know i'm not going to put down cash for something i know nothing of. granted some people will go by the sony psn description saying "hey this game is great blah blah blah" but not all people are like that, atleast i hope not....
if your game is good, the people will buy, some sony executive, while experienced probably will not know what the next big thing is, its like winning the f*cking lottery, but by denying all these indy devs they are most certainly stunting that, maybe not for the world, but for the ps3.
i'm happy with the quality of games that are being released on the psn, but i'm sure i'd be a lot happier if there was a lot more releases on the psn instead of getting 1 or 2 demo's, 1 or 2 games, 1 or 2 add on's every week

anyway roll on fat princess!

[Honolulu]

Microsoft used to be easiest, of the three big, to aproach regarding smaller projects.
They however did a capital FU to the indie-devs and the biggest dlck move I've ever seen in my career and made it a prerequisite for people who want to pimp their ideas so that they must have a publisher beforehand they even show up at their gates with a GDD and a smile on their faces, it was not needed at first.. a publisher that is.
From what I've experienced firsthand and with my own eyes, Sony is probably the easiest of the three big nowadays to work with regarding downloadables and indie-projects for consoles.

The easiest and least painful way to do this though is to make something for pc first, and see if grows. If that happens, you're IP will gather interest a lot easier and you'll already have something stable to build upon.

[Double Toasted]

Who should we listen to; a game developer or an average Joe?

[therealwillie]

the average joe, he's the one who buy's the games

[Honolulu]

What makes you think I'm an average joe? :)
I've actually worked as an Environment Artist on an XBLA-title that was about to be released, they however changed their publishing policies halfway through production while the one bloke who was head/headhunter of XBLA-titles at MS quit and started working for Sierra instead, leaving all the projects hanging and kicking a lot of smaller studios and developers in the groin. Making it nigh impossible for anyone to approach them with smaller IP's without a bigger publisher or bigger independent developer backup the project up.

It's not easy to pimp a project to any of the big three really, but before their policy-change, MS's xbla-solution really was the Ideal for these kind of games, imo.

[JonnyBigBoss]

PSN? Come on now. The flower developers LOVE Sony for allowing their small team to make such an awesome game, and share it with hundreds of thousands of people. This article is insane.

[eZJrg6ur]

What an idiot. Sony has offered more quirky indie titles than anybody else. Fl0w, Flower, Everyday Shooter? Oh I guess they hate the indie devs...

[rbrtchng]

I'd like Sony to have some sort of quality control so that I don't have to navigate through countless menus and try countless demos to find an indie game that's actually worth playing. And I've played The Path. It's really not a good game for me. It's probably a cool school project that is meant to demonstrate some senior disertation, but as a GAME, which is mostly about fun, The Path just doesn't do it for me.

If Sony turned down games like Braid, though, I'd be pissed at their quality control, but in my opinion, having quality control is better than not.

[MajestieBeast]

Sony there psn store games are artistic new and refreshing and mostly ingenius. Sony is the only 1 of the big 3 that supports games like flower flow lbp pixeljunk games and now modnation racers. All these devs werent or arent well known but sony gave there new and exciting ideas a chance while microsoft and nintendo said Meh. So ill look at those games before listening to this guy. Forgot to mention the last guy btw.

[Baka-akaB]

Precisely .
Give me one Fat princess or flow/er game , in exchange of 3-4 gunstar heroes/platform clones ranging from mediocre to sometimes good quality ...

[sephy 9 2 5]

say the majority of the quality indie/artsy games have been on PSN. So I think they're doing great on that front. I think that's probably one of a few good things I can say about their service personally. Maybe they should've said not as easy as advertised instead of impossible?

[f789790]

Did I miss something? Skipping would kick us back to the pathetic world we live in.

[ChickeyCantor]

Actually he said that people who are in for the story and the likes shouldn't be punished because they don't master the game mechanics.
He also said that it matters how this system is implanted into a game before he can really say if it sucks or not.

[BananaSlug]

Quality vs Quantity

[Marty8370]

You only have to look at PSN titles to see plenty of indie devs are having they games published. And best of all they can publish games them selves cos it cheap, meaning they keep the lion share of the profits.

[keysy420]

i wonder if the person who wrote this even understands the process of getting a game made for a company. every game will not get approved and if your a independent developer than you shoudl come witha full game that needs little tweaks, not looking for money to fund your game. problem is. exactly what sony said, when you make a independent game you need to be able to pull into a full audience. without that its a nitch game and it doesn't make sense for them the just give you money for something 50000 people are going to buy.

[keysy420]

ok ps4 is in development and since it will be similar programing that means dev's now are working on the next system. but thats not the case.

Heres what i have to say about what you said, here's a analogy.
If i came to mow your lawn and said give me 20 bucks to do it. Then if you said if i do a good job you'd give me more business with your neighbors.
i'd say cool.
all i have is a push lawn mower. so it takes me 5 hours to do it and then i do a sh1tty job. Are you still going to give me my 20 bucks for a half done job that nobody else is going to want.
only people who will take my business is the people who grass look like a sh1t.

your going to say screw that you dont want my work and i should go somewhere else with it.

what im saying is.. Sony indie games for the most part have been pretty good(gas lawn mowers). why put a below avg(push lawn mower) game in their and try to pass it off to other people(selling your poor service or bad product).
only people in dire need will play(nitch gamers).

Get off M$ nuts!! Just because you come up with a game doesn't mean some body has to buy it especially sony.WHO PUTS OUT MORE TOP RATED GAMES THAN ANYOTHER CONSOLE.This article doesnt talk about putting a game on 360 cause event though sony has more steps to go through then M$ the game was probably crap. If there game was any good he should have sent it to nintendo and see how fast they shut the door in his face. nintendo has the hardest system to get games on.

[Counter_ACT]

Maybe their proposed game was crap? Not sure how they're restraining creativity after having produced the likes of Flower, Locoroco, Papaton and so on.

[MysticStrummer]

Considering that I've read pretty much the exact opposite opinion in many articles since I bought my PS3 in early 07, I think it's more likely that these people presented a game that was either crappy or too much like a game or games that PSN already has. Reading this crazy translation, who the hell knows what was really said anyway? ;)

[Enigma_2099]

Let's get Johnathan Blow's opinion on this! What with the way Microsoft kinda-sorta screwed him over, and seeing as how his indy game was REALLY GOOD, I figured he might want to add his statement...

.. just sayin'...