Cerny: PS4 will rekindle diversity of PSOne era

When do you think that will happen? Do you realize how tiny of a cut of your $60 game purchase finds its way to the developer? If a handful of guys with no publishing fees, heavy marketing fees, etc try to charge $40 for a game, it better be the best reviewed game of all time.
A team of 5-7 people can do an indie game at 39.99. I think that is very doable.
 
Man, PS1 era might just be the most fun and thus overall my favorite generation. Though, it probably is a one time thing, to live and experience that era from beginning to end and being blown away be 3D for the first time and experiencing games like MGS, FFVII, Resident Evil, etc, can never be replicated again. I absolutely cherish those memories.
 
I think sooner or later some of the indie dev will grow bigger and their budget and games will be our mid tier games between $15 and $60 games. There's an obvious gap in the middle that no one filled, with more and more option for funding games like kickstarter, it's a matter of time some studio will try to make bigger games in term of budget. Let's say the current crop of kickstarter titles turn out successful, and they want to start a new project? More likely than not, the next project will be even more ambitious and probably require bigger budget.
Yes. Exactly! This would be a welcome result of self- publishing IMO. "Indie" doesn't have to mean low-spec, 2D or otherwise second-rate. My last post was at the end of a page but I'll say it again - what if indie teams can become bit bigger and more ambitious after creating a hit game or two? What if a group of a dozen experienced devs can leave a bigger studio and form their own? I realize its before the HD era but so many great games of the 90s and early 2000s were made by 20 or 30 person teams.

Like you said, there's an unfilled gap right now. Lets hope some of what Cerny, Boyes and company are doing can fill it by enabling creators.
 
Good luck with that mark. Indies are your only reality in this regard, and they're obviously not for everyone. Major publishers are and will further be contracting output to a few safe titles. I don't need to tell you where that leads.
 
Ok, but it better be an AMAZING game for 7 people to charge me $40 for it. What cut do dev teams get on a $60 game? Like $10-20?

What does it matter how many cut the dev get? You make it sounds as if the dev are not allowed to have too much profit. Pricing really just matter of the publisher strategy on how to sell their game, nothing to do with game quality or budget. Consumer are free to make their own decision whether they want to buy the game at the price the punlisher decide or not.

For example, tokyo jungle is a full priced game in japan, and sell pretty well there, but it's only $15 digital download titles in western market. The game is exactly the same, the publisher decide on the price targeting the different market demographic and it works well for them.
 
I'm really happy for the indies of today, I really am.

Having said that, I really miss the mid-budget games that were being made throughout the "Playstation era".

Beat'em ups, rpgs, adventure games, action games, puzzlers and tons of crazy, risky shit. All being made by small to mid-size studios who had enough money and resources and took a shot because they could.

Those were the indies of yesterday, and I miss them. Call me pessimistic, but based on the concepts I'm seeing from the indies of today, I don't foresee those games returning.
 
I'm really happy for the indies of today, I really am.

Having said that, I really miss the mid-budget games that were being made throughout the "Playstation era".

Beat'em ups, rpgs, adventure games, action games, puzzlers and tons of crazy, risky shit. All being made by small to mid-size studios who had enough money and resources and took a shot because they could.

Those were the indies of yesterday, and I miss them. Call me pessimistic, but based on the concepts I'm seeing from the indies of today, I don't foresee those games returning.

Was even more risky back then considering they only had the retail disc format too. Imagine that today, releasing games like Plants vs Zombies as a full retail box copy. LOL

Those games are more likely to come back now, think about it. Sony have loosened the licensing rules and they will have a revamped PSN to serve it. We are likely to see even more, not less.
 
What exactly is it about the current generation of platforms which prevented this from being the case? Is the PS3 not powerful enough for creativity and diversity? I don't like seeing companies acting as though vague things we like about games are contingent on some new product.
 
Ok, but it better be an AMAZING game for 7 people to charge me $40 for it. What cut do dev teams get on a $60 game? Like $10-20?
Wait, wait, wait.

You wouldn't pay $30 or $40 for a good game? Are you seriously suggesting that you're going to be checking the credits on the back of the box to find out how much each person is making before buying it - regardless of the game's quality?

WTF?
 
I'm really happy for the indies of today, I really am.

Having said that, I really miss the mid-budget games that were being made throughout the "Playstation era".

Beat'em ups, rpgs, adventure games, action games, puzzlers and tons of crazy, risky shit. All being made by small to mid-size studios who had enough money and resources and took a shot because they could.

Those were the indies of yesterday, and I miss them. Call me pessimistic, but based on the concepts I'm seeing from the indies of today, I don't foresee those games returning.

I echo your sentiments. A lot of the games I used to have fun with, like Seek and Destroy, were really fun low budget titles. It'd be nice if some indie studios could band together to bring back the middle ground, mid-budget games.
 
If Cerny/Sony truly wanted to rekindle that PSone-era flame and passion, maybe they should hire/seek out the people that were responsible for the classics that people have grown to love and cherish over the years. I'd say do what Square Enix did for the PSP port/update to Tactics Ogre. Get the original staff involved and working together for a lot of these games. Grant it, a lot of the people who were responsible for these classics have moved on to "greener" (iOS) pastures, but if it's in the realm of possibility to reunite people under a particular vision for some of these games, it could work really well. The indie scene is nice, but it's NOT representative of the Playstation brand or legacy. Just because the indie scene produces so many different and "unique" types of games doesn't mean that PS4 will automatically be as diverse as the PSone.

Just an example of a project/collaboration I'd like to see:

Klonoa 3: Why can't Sony team up with Namco to produce a follow up to Klonoa 3? Where's the original director, Hideo Yoshizawa? What's he been up to? What happened to Klonoa Works?

I really don't understand why people throw around statements like, "Give me platformers and JRPGs" so nonchalantly without realizing what has happen over the years. Making a laundry list of games you'd love to see is childish. It's not like Sony can just produce these games out of thin air. You need the right people who are motivated under a unified vision in order to produce something that "we're" all looking for.
 
Would like to see someone make a new Jumping Flash game haha

Yes please! I just bought this on PSN a couple of weeks ago. It doesn't have to be a AAA title. Just make a great downloadable version that has next gen graphics and modern controls!
 
What does it matter how many cut the dev get? You make it sounds as if the dev are not allowed to have too much profit. Pricing really just matter of the publisher strategy on how to sell their game, nothing to do with game quality or budget. Consumer are free to make their own decision whether they want to buy the game at the price the punlisher decide or not.

For example, tokyo jungle is a full priced game in japan, and sell pretty well there, but it's only $15 digital download titles in western market. The game is exactly the same, the publisher decide on the price targeting the different market demographic and it works well for them.

Right, and my point is that is what would take for ME to BUY their $40 indie title. And I personally don't think that is a price that is easily justified for an indie title until it starts to approach regular published game quality.

If it got incredible reviews, then it would become more justified in MY eyes.
 
Right, and my point is that is what would take for ME to BUY their $40 indie title. And I personally don't think that is a price that is easily justified for an indie title until it starts to approach regular published game quality.

If it got incredible reviews, then it would become more justified in MY eyes.
That's what I hope will happen over time. "Indie" games don't have to 8-bit platformers. What if a team of 15 people makes the next Portal or Katamari Damacy?
 
Man, PS1 era might just be the most fun and thus overall my favorite generation. Though, it probably is a one time thing, to live and experience that era from beginning to end and being blown away be 3D for the first time and experiencing games like MGS, FFVII, Resident Evil, etc, can never be replicated again. I absolutely cherish those memories.

Those were really unforgetable times...
 
If that's true, where's the Ape Escape and Legend of Dragoons? The Ore no Ryouri's and the Devil Dice's? The Intelligent Qube's and the Parappa The Rappers/UmJammer Lammy's? I'm not asking for framchise revivals like the rest of this thread. I'm asking for new IPs with as much fresh take on game design as those. Games like Minecraft are in the right direction but not fully there.

Sony has hardly revealed any of their games. THE WITNESS, however, are timed exclusive to Sony's platform, and so they announced no less than 8 indie games which are "console first exclusives" for PS4, all of them in wildly varied genres.

This is the amount of shit Sony by itself has yet to reveal

Mull over and take your jaw off the floor when you realize just how many surprises Sony has left. They can meet many of these demands and then some, and I bet one of Sony's goals WAS diversification.
 
I hope you're right Cerny, the lack of what I considered 'PlayStation games' on the PS3 is why I didn't get one and why my brothers waited until late in the generation. The brand changed this gen, and I'm really not all that fond of it.
 
Cerny needs to keep a lower profile and start making Knack a fun game. He is on a fast track to become the new Cevat Yerli of PR.

Start making Knack a fun game? Not saying Im a fan but have you test played it?
The post on here sometimes...
Sometimes I wish some of you can speak to these individuals face to face so I can enjoy watching you curl up into obscurity
 
Meh. We'll see, Cerny. I hope your prediction is accurate...but color me skeptical. The industry is very different now than it was during the PS1 era.

Diversity within the indie scene? Sure.
Within 1st party studios? Probable.
Diversity within the medium and large 3rd parties? I dunno about that.
 
"On PS4, I believe the indie paradigm will have the hardware as enabler, not as the central player,"

You have a hardfought path to conquer, but you've chosen the right weapons and tactics to win it.
 
Not true. A good chunk - certainly more than 10% - are games from small devs. Maybe more like 30+%, and probably a proportion that will grow over its lifecycle.

To clarify, I was mainly talking about retail games.

I really hope that Sony doesn't substitute Indie games for the same variety of classic wacky games they used to have in their lineup. I'm not sold on most Indie games. I feel like a lot of them are trying to emulate another era of gaming, but then when I sit down and play them it doesn't feel like they emulate them well. Also, I'd rather Indie games get released at retail instead of as downloads, since I'm still not sold on a download-focused future.

Oh well,
*Goes back to handhelds*
 
Well, going retail doesn't mean going AAA, but I guess the question is if that kind of variety can even get stocked by retailers and shown again. Still, if it's cheaper and easier to develop the games I imagine it's more likely, and it would be good to see more publishers gain some prominence rather than the trifecta of EA/Activision/Ubisoft, especially given how little of their output's actually appealing to me relative to other companies out there.

Though DD breaking past the $20 barrier would help a lot too, a big problem is that too often it's deemed unacceptable to pay more than $10 or $15, when they really should be fine so long as the product reflects that price (see: State of Decay and Minecraft at $20, whereas Raystorm as a 360 exclusive in the US at $15 was absolute bullshit.)
 
Man, PS1 era might just be the most fun and thus overall my favorite generation. Though, it probably is a one time thing, to live and experience that era from beginning to end and being blown away be 3D for the first time and experiencing games like MGS, FFVII, Resident Evil, etc, can never be replicated again. I absolutely cherish those memories.

Amen
 
I really don't get why people are so offended by Knack. It looks like a fun little game. It's probably the only thing from the launch lineup that I want to play at the moment too... :|

the talk about Knack harder difficulty are for core players make it seems that the different mode will be pretty different. I wonder which difficulty he's been showing all this time.
 
So, they're relying on indies for this? because that's what the whole article was about. with the title of the article I assumed this was Sony's initiative.
 
the talk about Knack harder difficulty are for core players make it seems that the different mode will be pretty different. I wonder which difficulty he's been showing all this time.

I think people were able to switch between Easy and Hard when they demoed it at E3. Some people reported getting killed very easily and that it was extremely hard to get through stages without dying, which sounds like they had been playing the harder difficulty since there's a very narrow window of getting attacks in for Hard mode iirc.
 
So, they're relying on indies for this? because that's what the whole article was about. with the title of the article I assumed this was Sony's initiative.

I'm hoping the endgame is for indie to start hitting retail for lower price than AAA titles. anyway, their definition of indie are very board, by their definition, Naught Dog team that make original Crash Bandicoot with just 7 people are probably considered indies nowadays.
 
Cerny's point was that indie development is going to create this diversity.

Why are you guys talking about old JRPG franchises?
 
It's easy to say things. I seriously doubt it. Even PS2 couldn't match PS1's diversity imo.

That's actually mentioned in the article, how the PS2 didn't match up to the diverse library that the PS1 offered. I think they're taking steps in the right direction if it's even a possibility that we'll get a similar output with the PS4.

Due to small team sizes the barriers to creating new types of experiences were quite low, and consequently the diversity of games available at retail was quite high. As a result, there was a certain fun factor that was an intrinsic part of the PlayStation DNA in those years.

"Concept-driven titles like PaRappa the Rapper, Devil Dice and Intelligent Cube were well received by the game playing audience and each went on to sell over a million units."

This diversity was lost on PlayStation 2, Cerny explained, because development teams had to get bigger to realise the power of the console. And the problem only accelerated with the arrival of PlayStation 3.

The teams of the past for PS1 are essentially all the "indie"-types now without the big budgets and all that.

Also, the comment he made was framed around indies, it seems, so it is expected that indies will help bring that diversity to the PS4.
 
What I want to see is top-notch teams making top-notch games in which the world tells the story. Demon/Dark Souls and Metroid Prime are great examples of these.

I don't need full body motion capture or professional actors or terrible exposition or things that are not central to the gaming experience in my games. I don't want my games to be movies.

For RPGs, text is just fine. I like the version of the characters I make instead of the shitty voice actors that are in most games.

If indie developers are the ones that give me this, then I will give them my money.
 
The bits of his Develop talk were as good as ever and cement the confidence that I have in the modern group running SCEWWS.
 
If I was Sony, I would at least require parity on Multiplatform releases. I'm all for being open and supporting self-publishing, but if they accept anything, and MS still require timed exclusivity or exclusive content, then what is to stop developers simply publishing first on Xbox one to satisfy MS and still taking advantage of sony's flexibility down the line?
Any number of things could stop devs from publishing first on the XBO: unfavorable publishing policies, XBO demographic not a good fit, bad past experience working with MS, etc. I don't think it's going to be as simple as MS telling everyone to jump and they all just ask how high. Also, Sony still has the options to either Pub Fund a dev or outright offer to publish their game, if they feel the need to secure exclusives, content or timed.
 
The thread title should be "Cerny: Indie devs will rekindle diversity of PSOne era."

A lot of people (e.g., ^^^) are getting confused.
 
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