Sony has ditched the publisher license fee that developers needed to pay to release video games through PlayStation Mobile, a platform prevalent on its struggling PlayStation Vita handheld and a selection of Android-based smartphones and tablets.
The annual $99 savings might not seem like much, but it signals a much larger shift on Sony’s part to court smaller and independent development studios back to PlayStation products.
The company introduced a new ‘Indie Games’ section yesterday that was added to the PlayStation Store on its popular PlayStation 3 home video game console. Exposure can be absolutely paramount to the success of an indie video game, so a dedicated category – where titles are less likely to be buried by big budget releases – will be well received by the developer community.
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Minecraft continues to dominate Xbox Live Arcade, but Sony’s ongoing efforts to nurture new and emerging talents haven’t gone amiss. PSN exclusive Journey picked up a dizzying number of accolades last year, while breakout titles The Unfinished Swan and Papa & Yo continue to push the boundaries of conventional genres.
The flipside to all this is that PlayStation Mobile hasn’t been a great success. The number of certified devices looks impressive at first glance, but it’s made up almost entirely of Sony devices, save for half a dozen HTC smartphones.
Sony needs to push PlayStation Mobile out onto other Android devices if it stands any chance of building a loyal following, a significant number of downloads and eventually a new viable revenue stream.
Without these pieces, Sony will continue to find it difficult to attract new studios back to the platform. Waiving the publisher license fee is a good start, but it has to be part of a much wider shift from the company.
Related: What Sony Should Have Announced
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