Co-founder of an independent publishing house Neon doctrine (Vigil: The Longest Night, Retrograde Arena, SINNER: Sacrifice for Redemption, Yuppie Psycho) Ian Garner ohlashed out with harsh criticism at one of the major players in the video game market. He shared the details in Twitter…
Garner’s discontent was caused by the policy of the so-called “X platforms“. Judging by the very” bold “hints, we are talking about family consoles Playstation from company Sony, but the businessman did not elaborate in order to avoid legal claims.
According to Garner, on Platform X, developers are deprived of control over their own projects. The main difficulties are related to advertising. To get help in promoting games, studios have to comply with all the requirements of the platform holder, “jump through the hoop” and grovel in every possible way.
If Platform X representatives have not appreciated a new game, it becomes even more difficult to advertise it on consoles, and there is nothing the developers can do about it. System Vishlistov, which allows you to assess the interest of the players, the role in the promotion does not affect at all. Instead, the platform holder is guided by internal evaluation criteria.
Before starting the studio, they go through several circles of hell:
- create a game for Platform X;
- overcome a complex verification system that covers three generations of software (backend);
- prepare and send a special trailer;
- write text for the blog “Platform X”;
- fill out several forms for social networks.
The studio should coordinate the trailer and blog post with the account manager. But even representatives of “Platform X” can not always say who exactly attaches a person to the project.
However, all problems can be solved instantly. To do this, you need to pay the platform holder at least 25 thousand dollars, as well as give 30% of the proceeds. Sources of Kotaku confirmed that this is how Sony operates.
However, after the release, the situation does not always change for the better, because studios and publishers cannot synchronize discount campaigns. Platform X rarely allows price cuts on games immediately after they are released. Neon Doctrine was faced with the fact that for years it was not possible to establish a discount on one of its projects that could spur player interest.
Garner considers Platform X to be a very successful and terrific piece of hardware, but many of the company’s processes are organized at the early 2000s level. He doesn’t understand how to be successful on the console without investing a lot of money in promoting it. The platform owner in his advertising relies on indie projects, but he is not interested in the opinions of the developers.
“My recent phone call showed that they don’t respect us, our opinion, or our livelihood,” Garner complained in an interview with Kotaku.
Co-founder of Neon Doctrine recommends that studios focus on Steam (Valve provides access to detailed sales statistics) and Nintendo Switch (a certain level of product “visibility” is guaranteed). Many indie studios have already done this, although they don’t talk about it publicly.
Concerning Microsoftthen its working methods are reminiscent of Sony. Apparently, the company’s trump card is the subscription service. Game passwhich Ian Garner also mentioned in passing.
The entrepreneur’s opinion was supported by several other indie developers. However, Sony also has advocates pointing to the problems of other platforms.
Sony’s strange approach when working with partners has long been known. So, projects from Japanese companies must comply not only with the standards of the Japanese rating system (CERO), but also additional requirements of the censors of the platform holder.
See also: CyberConnect2: Sony has banned Japanese developers from adding dismemberment to games
