Yesterday Ian Garner, co-founder of independent publishing house Neon Doctrine, criticized Sony Interactive Entertainment for working with independent studios, lack of normal communication channels and the need to pay 25 thousand dollars for basic game promotion. His remarks spread through the media and caused a great stir.
Today, Kotaku released a sequel to the story, receiving complaints about the platform holder from several other developers.… PlayStation fans accused the site of “conspiring against Sony”, to which journalists responded as follows:
“We have confirmed and reported the exact amounts that Sony has to pay to promote games on the PlayStation Store. The conspiracy ends there. And information continues to be gathered about how poorly Sony is performing compared to Nintendo and Microsoft.”
- “There is Nintendo, which is supporting us. There is Microsoft, which is helping indie. And there is Sony, which only supports its own AAA game machine, and it doesn’t care about anyone else,” one independent publisher told Kotaku on the terms anonymity. “Sony doesn’t understand what indie is. Has no idea at all. For her, indie is something with a budget of over a million dollars.”…
- “No platform is ‘great’, but Sony is not doing well at all,” added a spokesperson for another small publisher. “Sony is aware of this, the problem persists for a long time, and the company even admitted it in conversations with developers, but no one is even trying to fix anything.”…
- The difficulty is not even that Sony asks at least $ 25,000 for placing the game in a prominent place on the PS Store, but the fact that for most indie developers this is the only way to catch the eye of users in the store, writes Kotaku… If a developer cannot pay, no one will see its release at all, which is in stark contrast to the state of affairs at the Nintendo and Microsoft sites. The latter also take money for promotion (Kotaku journalists have not yet figured out what amounts are in question), but in addition to this, they also offer studios various free options…
- “Every week we get messages from users like“ Wow, saw your game on the Xbox dashboard today! ”The Xbox interface may seem confusing, but it’s interesting: there is a lot of free space for mentioning various releases,” said the publisher of small indie games. explaining the difference with the PlayStation. “And on Switch, without paying for ad items, you can be listed for free in the new products, bargains section, there are all kinds of lists. Plus, Nintendo is adding new releases and games with discounts to the Finds tab.
- Several indie developers at once supported Ian Garner’s statement yesterday and complained about the low sales of their games on the PlayStation… Matthew Wright of WhiteThorn Games has posted a chart showing that Switch accounts for 60% of the company’s sales, Xbox – about 30%, Steam – 7%, and PlayStation – only 3%… Christian Botea of Those Awesome Guys followed suit and revealed that 91.5% of its sales come from PC, 7.6% from Switch, 0.6% from Xbox and only 0.3% from PlayStation…
- Another developer, who wished to remain anonymous, told Kotaku that his indie game sold 20,000 copies on the Xbox and 7,000 copies on the PlayStation, despite the big difference in user base in Sony’s favor. But most of all, the author was struck by the sales of DLC for this game. On Xbox, 2,000 people paid for additional content, and on PlayStation – 7 (just seven people)…
- “If there is no place in the store where players can see new games, why on earth should we pay Sony a commission of 30% on sales? For what?” – one of the representatives of the industry in an interview with Kotaku laments. “Yes, try to find my game on PlayStation without knowing its name …” – added another author on Twitter, and then deleted the message. On the PS Store, most indie developers have no chance of being featured in a prominent place without paying Sony money, whereas on Switch and Xbox they do.…
- Another complaint against Sony is related to sales. Reducing the price of your game on the PS Store is a difficult process, which is generally closed for many small publishers.… And this lowers their chances of reaching an audience. “Sony is just the worst here,” said one of Kotaku’s interviewees. It is possible to reduce the price of software in the PS Store today mainly during special promotions, when the studio receives a notification from the store with an offer to take part in the activity. Developers cannot choose the day of the sale themselves, and Sony may also not like the discount level that the team is targeting.… If you name a discount that is too small or too large, then you may not be included in the general sale. By default, Sony offers a 40-50% discount. But the problem is that not everyone gets invitations from Sony.… That is, many do not have the ability to reduce the price of their game at all.
- Nintendo and Microsoft are incomparably better than Sony in terms of openness and communication with small developers – the interlocutors of Kotaku speak about this with one voice… “Microsoft helps to sort out every little thing, we have never been asked for any money (apart from a 30% commission for sales), the employees are nice and helpful,” wrote the creator of Deja Vu, Eric Freeman. “The Xbox team isn’t just looking at popular developers, they’re just trying to support quality content creators. They also have Xbox Game Pass, which is a great deal.”
- Meanwhile, in the Sony camp, things are different. It is extremely difficult to get answers even to basic questions.… “We’re a fairly well-known and established studio with a track record under our belt, but I have no idea who at Sony needs to be contacted to launch the sale on its consoles. It’s like trying to be heard in a vacuum in space, “wrote Ragnar Ternqvist of Red Thread Games.…
- To summarize, Kotaku stresses that no one calls Nintendo and Microsoft “perfect”, as there are pitfalls and awkward moments there too. For example, game developers on Switch cannot release updates larger than 200MB without specific permission from the platform holder. However, in matters of selling digital versions of games and feedback, everything is much better here than in the case of Sony.…
- “Nintendo is finally listening to us and is now providing developers with some of the best game control tools on the market. We can make a discount on our game at any time, we can choose any percentage we want. Everything depends solely on us. This freedom is still only on Steam“- said Kotaku a representative of a respected indie publisher.” Sections with new releases, great deals, charts, all kinds of lists, the Finds tab … On Switch there are many ways to show up in the store and not pay for it. I’m not saying everything is perfect, but thanks to these options, we end up selling our games in decent numbers on Switch – because people can see them. Now try to find our games on PlayStation. ”
Reporters asked Sony for comment, but received no response.
Read also: “Sales are many times lower than Switch and Xbox One”: Publisher Nowhere Prophet complained about PlayStation 4…
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