14 DAY TRIAL // Sony has recently said that they are committing to spending 20 million dollars in the coming three years in order to bring more exclusive indie titles on the PlayStation Network and one of the executives working with the service says that the entire program is an effort to promote imagination in gaming.
Brandon Stander, who is the director of marketing working with the PlayStation Network, has told Gamasutra during an interview that, “I wouldn't even say it's an indie play per se, because I think indie has connotations of it has to be really wild and different and small and edgy and only for those that understand the nuances of the industry and a little esoteric.”
He added, “I don't think that's necessarily what we're going for. I think it's more along the lines of 'Hey, we as a company really value imagination in our products and having creatively differentiated experiences to offer our consumers.'”
Stander believes that innovation can come in all areas of video game creation, from gameplay mechanics to how the story is presented and how the titles are controlled.
Sony believes that the best chance to find these innovative new projects that can then make it to the PSN is through a number of programs under the name of Playstation-edu, run through colleges and universities, but also through word of mouth from gamers and via events and local groups.
Sony is also making it clear that those who sign with the company to bring their games on the PSN will continue to have full control over the intellectual property and the names of their projects and will be able to get their games on other platforms after a while.
Sony is keen to make the PSN more attractive to both developers and players after the problems it had with hack attacks back in April.