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Shuhei Yoshida became the Head of PlayStation Indies back in November 2019 and is widely credited with changing the company’s focus from AAA games to a more varied output, but it seems like the planning for this change had already started before he got the role. Yoshida stated it was actually PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan who pushed for a bigger focus on indie games and the formation of the PlayStation Indies team.
How PlayStation increased its focus on indie games
Throughout 2018 and 2019, Playstation was focusing more on the AAA side of gaming. In a Fireside Chat with GamesIndustry.biz, Yoshida explained how it was actually Jim Ryan that wanted to change this. In mid-2019, Jim Ryan asked a global third-party relations team to come up with a plan to reinvigorate PlayStation’s efforts to help indie publishers and indie developers, and the result was Playstation Indies. Shortly after Yoshida was brought on board, Greg Rice joined the team after losing his job at Double Fine thanks to the takeover by Microsoft. Together they hatched a plan that was presented to management in January 2020 and it gained their support.
The renewed effort has led to many changes being made. Indie developers used to submit their games to all three PlayStation regions — the Americas, Europe, and Japan — each of which had slightly different rules that made the publishing process harder. PlayStation Indies simplified this process in time for the launch of the PS5 and has now introduced its own publishing team. The team also tries to curate the cream of the crop of indie games and showcase them more. Methods to do this include the Indie Showcases on the PlayStation Blog, the Monthly Picks on the PlayStation Store, and the Wishlist feature on PS5, all of which results in more coverage for indie games.
Despite this, Yoshida acknowledges there is still a way to go before indie coverage is where it needs to be, especially where all the team is able to ensure all indie games are treated equally in terms of coverage and promotion. Only time will tell when the team manages to reach this point but in the meantime, Yoshida says Tchia is the next indie game to watch.
In other news, a Bloodborne modder has disputed Jeff Grubb’s claims that the game’s code makes a PC port difficult. Elsewhere, the PlayStation Tournaments public beta is available now on PS5.