14 DAY TRIAL // Despite the closed nature reputation of the PlayStation brand, Sony is trying to make it more open for players and developers alike by expanding the PlayStation Network, which might soon get a boost from the technology recently acquired from Gaikai.
Adam Boyes, who is the vice president in charge of publisher relations at Sony, has told VentureBeat that, “Back in the PlayStation 2 days and the PlayStation Portable days, you had to be a full-blown publisher to get your content out to stores. Now we have the PlayStation Network and other digital destinations where people can purchase content.”
Sony has also recently dropped the submission process for data-only patches from all developers. The company is also more willing to accept games that use the free-to-play and microtransaction-based business model.
Boyes added, “We used to have certain requirements for publishing. Now we have none for developers to publish other content. You have to go through the process of submitting for concept approval, but all of these things are things that have naturally evolved over the console life cycle.“
As the current generation of home consoles is approaching its end, both Sony and Microsoft are relying more on small indie titles to attract players than they did during their first few years.
Recently, the developer of Fez and Microsoft got into a row because of the price the indie game creator needed to pay in order to get a patch certified by the publisher.
Sony might also add more options to the PlayStation Network by simply adding the cloud and streaming gaming tech that it has acquired from Gaikai this year.
Rumors say that the next generation of devices from Sony and Microsoft will include digital distribution solutions and will place less of an emphasis on disk -based titles.
Official announcements will arrive this year and launch might be planned for 2014.