Introduction

My criticisms against Sony PlayStation are nothing new. Back in mid-April, I wrote an article about how Sony was obsessed with blockbusters, treated some of its own studios like 2nd class citizens, and lagged behind its competitors in terms of game preservation. When Head of PlayStation Studios, Herman Hulst, made a statement about Sony's commitment to the Japanese market, I was thoroughly unconvinced.

This is not to say that everything Sony is doing is bad. Its recent acquisition of Housemarque is a laudable move and the studio's portfolio backs that up. Games such as Nex Machina, Matterfall, and Returnal cover genres that are not of the "3rd person action adventure with stealth elements" kind. There are also rumors of an acquisition of Bluepoint, the studio behind the Demon's Souls and Shadow of the Colossus remakes, which would be a very cromulent pickup.

However, it seems that every time Sony makes one step forward, it takes two steps back. I have heavily criticized Sony in the past for how it treated small Japanese studios with its censorship policy. Turns out that it's not just the folks in Japan who are having it difficult.

Indie Developers Complaints on Sony's Lack of Communication

On June 30, 2021, Iain Garner, a developer of studio Neon Doctrine, made a long thread on Twitter criticizing Sony's policies on how to get his games promoted and discounted on the PlayStation Store. While he did not name Sony outright, he greatly hinted at that when he said that the console does not have Gamepass.

Iain Garner, developer of Neon Doctrine, talks about the many hoops he has to jump through to get his games exposed to the PlayStation audience and the shoddy communication from Sony. (Archive version)

To summarize, Iain described the promotion process as tortuous. He would have to "jump through hoops", beg, and plead for any sort of promotion. In addition, he called the PlayStation Blog an ineffectual website for indie games to get exposure. In order to get his post published on the blog, he would need an account manager, but when he asked Sony how to get one, the company basically went "I don't know...". Lastly, in order to discount his own game, he needed an invite, but invites are extremely limited.

Iain Garner's Twitter thread received a lot of attention to the point that other indie developers chimed in and corroborated his misgivings. CEO of Whitethorn Games, Matthew White, revealed in his own thread that his studio's games perform the worst on PlayStation. The majority of sales came from the Nintendo eShop with Xbox also taking up a significant chunk.

CEO of Whitethorn Games and former PlayStation employee, Matthew White, reveals how his studio's games perform the worst on PlayStation and how Sony takes way too long to respond back to his inquiries. (Archive version)

What's even more damning is that his studio's games on PlayStation perform worse than DRM-free storefronts like Itch.io and GOG. DRM-free versions of games are far more susceptible to piracy as you can simply copy entire games to your flash drive and transfer to as many computers as you like. However, in spite of that disadvantage, Whitethorn Games' software sold better on Itch.io and GOG than on a storefront with DRM protections.

Ragnar Tørnquist, an employee of Red Thread Games, also chimed in to complain about Sony's poor communication system. Despite the fact that his studio's game, Draugen, has been in the market for over a year, it has not received a single discount on the PlayStation store due to Sony's unclear instructions on who to contact.

Ragnar Tørnquist, an employee of Red Thread Games, talks about how despite Draugen has been out for a while, the studio had difficulty getting ahold of Sony to sell the game at a discount on the PlayStation Store. (Archive version)

Creator of Dropsy The Clown and Hypnospace Outlaw, Jay Tholen, echoed Matthew White's statements on how his games would sell better on Itch.io than on the PlayStation Store.

Jay Tholen, maker of Dropsy The Clown and Hypnospace Outlaw, claims that his games have sold more on Itch.io than on PlayStation. (Archive version)

Lastly, Company Director Mike Rose of No More Robots made a statement that many indie devs are hesitant to step on Sony's toes out of fear of burning bridges. He asserted that despite their silence, they are in full agreement with Iain Garner's accounts.

Mike Rose, Company Director of No More Robots, corroborates what other indie developers have said about Sony PlayStation and claims that the vast majority of devs agree with Iain Garner's accounts. (Archive version)

Eventually, word spread around beyond Twitter to the point that large game publication sites like IGN and Gameindustry.biz covered the story.

Closing Thoughts

Remember during E3 2013, Sony had a bunch of indie developers play their respective games live on stage to promote the PlayStation 4? At that time, Microsoft was getting roundly criticized for its DRM policy surrounding the Xbox One and its 24-hour online check system. In addition, Microsoft had a pretty strict curation system that was not friendly to indie developers, so Sony took advantage of that for an easy PR win during E3. About a month later, Microsoft would open up and allow self-publishing on the Xbox One.

However, it looks like the roles have completely reversed. Microsoft did not just make a reactionary move and called it a day. Throughout the previous generation, the company continued to improve relations with indie developers and eventually started the ID@Xbox program. The program removed a lot of red tape that indie developers had to navigate through and simplified the certification process. In addition, the really good value of Gamepass allows indie games to get a lot of exposure from the Xbox and PC audiences.

Sure, at this time, Sony is still in the driver's seat as the PlayStation 5 is selling at a faster pace than the Xbox Series X|S. However, if it continues to neglect the concerns of indie developers, the company will risk losing games that can diversify the overall library.