Good for him, with everyone fighting to support indies nect gen we're gonna get some great games. Hopefully indies continue to release everywhere even if it takes a couple months. I dont want them to become a part of the console v console v pc fight
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Former Double Fine VP Greg Rice joins Sony as Global Head of Indie Accounts
- Thread starter Captain of Outer Space
- Start date
Like Stallion said, we're still basically in the first three years of the Switch's lifespan. Indies always cool a bit over time, especially when digital storefronts become so crowded it's impossible to actually explore them.
That's how I also first encountered him, back during the good ol' days of Usenet!
Switch is now a couple years from launch, it's at or entering it's cycle peak right now really, and Nintendo is doing heavier promotion, courting and support for indies than ever. Probably in part because indies are a more key software driver on Switch than they were for Sony/MS (ie: indies are selling comparably more on the platform, but there's also comparably less AAA support on the platform) but there's definitely a pretty clear difference in approach at this stage for Nintendo. "Everyone does it" objectively isn't applying to them.
Expected, after the tweets showing Greg hanging out with Shu. Really good get for him, it would be great to see him on Sony's E3 stage in the years to come
Like this has been the state of the eShop for a solid 18 months already. Switch already has more games than Xbox One and it's 3.5 years younger, it's actually almost caught up to PS4. And Nintendo's indie efforts are only accelerating anyway.
It's not a matter of the console manufacturer doing less or more advertising. It's the nature of the beast as the ecosystem becomes packed with a variety of highly rated, highly played and well known games.
lol Who pissed in y'alls Cheerios this morning? 😂
The ecosystem became packed in 2018 and it's been the console priority for indie devs and pubs large and small since basically. It's been hugely competitive for awhile now, we're well past the launch year gold rush here.
And 1st party policy and agenda is sort of exactly what the point was about. Nintendo hasn't "cooled" on this sector, quite the opposite. What "everyone does" they expressly haven't and apparently aren't anytime soon given they've only progressively expanded those efforts, but their software landscape and ecosystem is also pretty different from your traditional X86 home box console.
I'd say the third year is where it starts to be apparent and with the next gen launch happening next year I expect that to only exacerbate things. Mind you I'm not saying indies stop finding success or selling well but that it becomes much harder to break out, hit it big, etc. especially if you're the new guy on the block.
I'm just playing, I'm here to have fun and joke around. Too many are way too serious.
Damon is Head of Portfolio at Xbox, not specifically indie games.
LOL are you pretending the Switch is in it's half cycle? if so that's a fucking short lived console...
Switch is in it's 3rd year, it's about to enter it's 4th in 3 months. And maybe I'm just skeptical but we've been hearing about the bottom dropping out for indies since year two. Just once it gets competitive or crowded, any day now I'm sure.
It's about to enter it's 4th year and Nintendo consoles usually get 5-6 before their successors hit.
Mmh, anyone know if this page is all new, or is it just me discovering it now ?
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pretty old
I thought you were the one always advocating console exclusives as a way to justify the point and existence of consoles.
You should be thrilled.
This narrative is wild. Did indies games stop coming out on PS4 or something?
You would think lol its not like they just had a SOP with them.
Still trying to wrap my head around the idea that any of the big three advertise or care about Indies more than the others. Each year there are thousands of indie games released and the big three combined probably promote maybe 1% of them. The gap in promotion of Indies is not enough proclaim any one company cares more than another.
ERA is a bit weird - all 3 players are doing their most to push smaller devs and indie projects.
There is only so much you can do, always crying in these threads....but whenever a indie games gets the spotlight during State of Play or Xbox steams (forgot what they are called) - people are mad about it as well.
Big AAA games will always get the most spotlight because thats where the most money is allocated - dont expect any first party to be able to change that rule or those audience expectations.
There is only so much you can do, always crying in these threads....but whenever a indie games gets the spotlight during State of Play or Xbox steams (forgot what they are called) - people are mad about it as well.
Big AAA games will always get the most spotlight because thats where the most money is allocated - dont expect any first party to be able to change that rule or those audience expectations.
Sony stopped funding and publishing a lot of indie projects for a bit yes.
Sony Santa Monica specifically seemed to stop cultivating studios like they did during the PS3 and early PS4 life cycle.
Make note of Jim Ryan specifically saying that Indie games weren't relevant anymore, that is where all of this talk about Sony not giving a fuck about indies came from.
ID@Xbox and Nintendo's continued specialized streams for indie game reveals shows a bit more effort than Sony was for quite a bit during the middle of the PS4 life cycle. Sony used to be top class but they've pulled back enough to where the other 2 are outperforming them.
Just because a couple of games show up in a State of Play that was mainly used to hype up Resident Evil 3 and Ghost of Tsushima doesn't mean that Sony is somehow top indie dog or doing just as much as the other publishers out there.
This is all true but I think it's worth noting that Sony did move some indie funding into PSVR during this period. PS4/Vita investment was practically halted though and focus on indies overall was definitely drawn down.
Yeah, they did do a pretty good push during the PSVR launch and I think even still they are. Not something to scoff at either, since VR development can be so volatile even more so than standard games.
I'm hoping with somebody with passion and compassion like Greg here the return of cultivating and helping out smaller projects finding their footing makes a big return. Sony just hasn't been the same since Adam Boyes left.
The developers will still get cash and support, even if Sony are just 'pretending'.
Most VR games are indie games and Sony pushed those in the latter half of the generation. And like I said MS or Nintendo holding dedicated streams that probably cover 10-20 games at the most isn't a big enough differentiation to consider them head and shoulders of above Sony in marketing indies.
At the same time, the criticism of using them for the launch of a new platform would go hand in hand with VR, but mostly the publishing for VR titles comes from the need. Too many publishers see it as a risk so they've been reluctant to jump in. Indies were the only way to solve it.
Even if Nintendo/Microsoft advertises 10-20 games every quarter in a marketing video to the public, it's more than Sony has been doing lately. Microsoft and Nintendo make a specific point to promote indie titles as independent titles and give them showcases. Microsoft lately has been paying out for them to launch on GamePass as well and specifically advertising and highlighting indie releases with their ID@Xbox label. Hell, even just recently Nintendo opened up and gave an indie dev the license to work on Zelda and we got Cadence of Hyrule.
Sony's presence in the indie realm just feels nonexistent lately, whereas 5 years ago Sony was releasing and funding big indie titles left and right. I originally bought my PS4 because of all the indie games they showed off, as it's always super exciting to see new projects breath life into the field. This isn't some out of left field criticism, it's important to remember that the current big boss at Playstation specifically went out to say that Indie developers are no longer relevant. They used to be above all other competitions and they've fallen so far from the throne that it feels explicitly worse since after their original initiatives it's like they didn't have anything to replace it.
Here's the exact quote:
Jim Ryan via GIBiz said:
He was responding to a question about indies, not making a spontaneous statement about them, and says 'less' not 'no longer' when referring to the wider marketing messaging Sony had to make.
They shouldn't because they aren't get much western AAA support, they need to supplement that
Ha! Nice. I was in rec.games.video.atari, there was apparently an alt.atari-jaguar, but I could have sworn there was an alt.fan.atari-jaguar or something also. Good times.
To be fair, Sony has different people in every leadership position. Talking about what they did with Indies after the start of this gen is like harping on what Microsoft did with 1st party through 2017. They're different teams going into 2020. It's a good thing if Sony has passionate people in leadership positions handling Indies. Great move!
It's amazing, really.
Some ppl will create any type of narrative to make X company the bad guy.
I don't know how someone can say something like that with a straight face.
Yuuup. Just an extension of dumb console wars mentality.
Amazing move for Greg though, from Doublefine to such a high position at Playstation. Good on him, he seems like a very solid dude.
OP
OP
That never got a spotlight. Just places like Resetera, Kotaku, and others obsessing about a random video uploaded on YouTube that gave it more promotion than it ever got on the PlayStation Store.