were so small and new, we added our own development resources to try to help the creators’ ideas to become the real product. So we have many projects like that. Like Thatgamecompany had, Flow, Flower and Journey and because of the launch of PlayStation Network with PlayStation 3, it was a new marketplace. We needed to provide products on the marketplace storefront, so we decided that instead of putting up classics and arcade games to the store, that’s something third party companies would do. We decided as first party to invest in original, small,
digital only games. However, while we were doing it, the big indie boom happened. There are so many quality games created by the indie community, so we felt that we couldn’t compete. There are so many great games. So we shifted our resources from a first party standpoint, from funding small digital games, but we totally believe that new creative ideas are coming from everywhere. With the advancement of tools like Unity and Unreal Engine and global digital distribution. On Steam or Epic Store, PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch and mobile. Anyone, like even high school students in Africa, can download these toolsets and make games that are distributed globally. So there are many more creative people making games and publishing and releasing different games from different backgrounds. I’m a huge fan of games made in these countries, like Southeast Asia, or Latin America or the Middle East; that have a very unique, interesting art style, or story based on the mythology from that region, or music, or even food that’s in the games, presenting a diversity of voices from around the world. Now we present it in video game form, which I enjoy very much.
36 | MCV/DEVELOP October/November 2022
Nintendo teamed up with the Crypt of the NecroDancer team, and let them work with Zelda, and they made Cadence of Hyrule together. Do you think Sony might eventually start teaming up with indie developers like that? So in my current role, I am not a part of the PlayStation Studios first party team. However, the third party relations team do have a day to day relationship with indie developers. Sometimes they get a proposal or a request to work with a first party team. So in that case, myself or other third party relations account managers take the proposal to PlayStation Studios. So it’s up to the PlayStation Studios team to embark on this. There are many collaborations in terms of IP collaborations, like some first party characters will show up in other companies’ games, so something like that is already happening. Yeah, it’s a very interesting idea. That’s something unique that PlayStation can offer to the indie community.
Like the exclusive Kratos cameo in Shovel Knight. Yes! My personal favourite is Super Time Force. They put me in the game as a character!
So you were president of Sony Interactive Worldwide Studio? How is the scope different with indies? Is it bigger? You’re obviously dealing with a lot more developers? Well, yeah. So, when I was managing first party studios ... we had big teams making big games. So that was really exciting. But each title took a long time. So it was a slow and steady process to kind of oversee. But now I’m focused on indies, there are so many games. Many of them pitched every day, like I was at GI Live yesterday, and there was a question to the panelists. “How many pitches do publishers get annually?” The answer was five thousand. Unbelievable! So many games are being
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