Sony has always offered indie games on its PlayStation Store, but it has been wrought with problems, mainly because people couldn’t find them very easily. Today, that changes. Sony has officially given Indie Games its own category, thus making easier for customer to find these unique games in a convenient way.
Director of Publisher and Developer Relations at SCEE, Andrew Parsons, via the official PlayStation blog gave his thoughts on how this will continue to evolve: “This is an exciting space where indie content can receive additional exposure. It’s an opportunity to showcase the best of these great games for PS3 and PS Vita – and for this to be constantly refreshed with the latest releases and promotions. It’s the first and best place to go for indie content (though of course content can still be found through the normal channels too).
I’m delighted that the indie devs have really taken advantage of how open PlayStation is to this tremendous mix of designs and ideas, and that we’re happy to work with everything from traditional buy-and-play games, to free-to-play. We haven’t asked you to trade in sheep for games yet, but I’m sure it’ll come soon.”
To commemorate this launch Sony is providing Retro City Rampage (our review) at a 50% discount and Papo & Yo promotional bundle containing the soundtrack and game at a 40% discount (55% for PlayStation Plus subscribers) until May 21st. Zombie Tycoon II is currently free for PlayStation Plus subscribers for a limited time.
This is definitely a step in the right direction for Sony, but it should have happened sooner. Nonetheless I am happy that the landscape for indie games is changing across the board, not just on the PC but on consoles as well. The only feature I see Sony lacking at this point is what Green Light provides, allowing users to say which games they want to play with those games getting the fast-track to being released on that platform.