Sony open to buy-in early access (alpha/beta) games on PS3/PS4/Vita/PSM

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PaulLFC

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Sony is open to the idea of letting indie developers charge for early access to unfinished PlayStation 4 games, reports Joystiq. According to Sony America’s VP of publisher and developer relations Adam Boyes, the company would "absolutely support" buy-in alphas, so long as they don’t "have any bugs that are completely destroying the world," adding that the same model could also be applied to PlayStation 3 and Vita development. Competitor Valve recently announced plans to offer a similar service through its Steam distribution platform under the name Early Access.

Indie developer support will be a key differentiator in the next generation of consoles, as incumbents like Sony and Microsoft hope to lure talented developers away from lucrative mobile platforms. To that end, Sony is trying hard to appeal to the community, pledging that its new console will be easier to develop for than the existing PlayStation 3. Speaking to gamasutra, Boyes explained that Sony would also be streamlining the development process for its new console, scrapping the time-consuming greenlighting process. The company had also announced it will get rid of costly patch fees for updating games that are already in distribution.

So far, a number of prominent independent developers have announced plans to develop for the platform — Braid creator Jonathan Blow showed off his new game, The Witness at Sony’s keynote last month, and a number of ports of existing indie games have already been announced, including Primal Carnage, Sportsfriends, and Divekick.
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http://www.theverge.com/2013/3/26/4...die-devs-charge-for-early-access-to-ps4-games

Full quote:

"Yeah, if it doesn't have any bugs that are completely destroying the world," Adam Boyes, VP of publisher and developer relations at Sony America told Joystiq last night at the PlayStation Indie Arcade event. "[CCP's Dust 514] is a great example of putting out content that you know is not final. If you want to monetize it, that's fine. I mean, if you want to put out a game that's playable and does pass the checklists and stuff, you can. If it doesn't sell and you can't support, you may not want to support, but we absolutely support that."

Boyes noted the buy-in alpha openness wasn't just for the upcoming PlayStation 4, but could be applied to PS3, Vita or PlayStation mobile.

He continued, "We allow that on all of our platforms, that sort of continually updating and selling. Again, if people buy it and they're passionate about it, and you want to improve it and make it better over time you can."
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http://www.joystiq.com/2013/03/26/sony-open-to-buy-in-alpha-games-for-playstation-platforms/
 
Not sure if good or not.

Then again I guess there is no harm if they are under some ''Alpha games'' category that you have to specifically go to get the games.
 
There's a world of difference between Dust 514 and the 'early access alphas' that PC gamers can access. Dust is a finished game with content updates, not some early beta.
 
These are the types of policies that will get developer support and gain community following. I love the potential that next-gen is showing from an access and experience standpoint
 
I already said it in another thread: while I'm still not interested in consoles in general, Sony is actually doing everything right with this PS4.
 
LiquidMetal14 said:
Which they would clearly define much like Steam.
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I mean the best way would just have a ''Alphas/Betas'' tab in the webstore and make it so that the games do not appear on any search unless you specifically allow it to do that.

I mean me and your regular GAFfers probably would have no problem knowing the difference but there are some goddamn clueless people out there and depending how lenient Sony is about the state these games would have to be there could be all sorts of disasters.
 
Sony is like, "fuck it, do what you want" when it comes to devs now. I think that's pretty sick! I don't know if it'll pay off or not but it's great to see them adjusting to the market. The game has changed and they seem fine to change along with it.
 
All that developer friendly stuff sony has been doing sounds good. i just hope in a rush to accommodate all these new markets they don't end up compromising the security of psn..
 
I don't like this, feels like quality is going to take a huge hit. Not a fan of kickstarter, not a fan of this. Too much risks, gamers shouldn't take it. You know many will either not know what they are buying into or will be expecting more support than they get.

Dibbz said:
Devs already do this so might as well make it official.
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This would mean that complaints and hopes for fixes mean even less. "Well you knew you were buying an alpha."


The company had also announced it will get rid of costly patch fees for updating games that are already in distribution.
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I thought it did this already. :/
 
If done like Arma 3, smaller alpha price and you still get he full game when its released ( so say you buy it in alpha, you get the beta build and finale build for free basically) then it's very good to see it possibly happening.


PS+ = early alpha access will be a MASSIVE incentive IMO.
 
Razorskin said:
Would be a nice idea if the patching process is better.
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This. If they simplify their patch process to push out patches faster & cheaper this could really take off, but if it's more of the same then I can't imagine early betas like Don't Starve or Endless Space coming to consoles.
 
Skyzard said:
I don't like this, feels like quality is going to take a huge hit. Not a fan of kickstarter, not a fan of this. Too much risks, gamers shouldn't take it. You know many will either not know what they are buying into or will be expecting more support than they get.



This would mean that complaints and hopes for fixes mean even less. "Well you knew you were buying an alpha."
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but it also means feedback and build the game with the help of the community.

also means the game could still be crap and just less sales in the end.
 
DMPrince said:
but it also means feedback and build the game with the help of the community.

also means the game could still be crap and just less sales in the end.
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Yeah...only if we are lucky :/


Meh, I know I won't be too quick to part with my cash for unfinished games. Betas are better for that anyway...this might help some commendable devs finish the project but it also might make the dev lazy and content - especially if it sells well.

Sony have pubfunds and stuff anyway right?
 
Skyzard said:
I don't like this, feels like quality is going to take a huge hit. Not a fan of kickstarter, not a fan of this. Too much risks, gamers shouldn't take it. You know many will either not know what they are buying into or will be expecting more support than they get.



This would mean that complaints and hopes for fixes mean even less. "Well you knew you were buying an alpha."
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Terrible arguments all around.
Even ignoring for a moment how "this" and "Kickstarter" have literally nothing in common.
 
^ Well, if/when you do, I'll be happy to hear you out.

Napalm_Frank said:
Kickstarter isn't about buying, it's about funding.
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You fund and hope to buy at the same time. Here you buy and hope to fund. Same shit really. You might get more immediately but it's still just a stepping stone before the final product. Both have lots of risk that the gamer now takes part of.
 
Pennywise said:
Imagine how Gaf would go mad over Versus D:

Anyway, it can be a nice addition for indie developer in order to get the hype train rolling.
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Or stop it in its tracks. We're talking about things we paid for that might not even be up to the quality of demos.

And I can already see Sony keeping (or allowing indies to keep) info about the alphaness of the 'products' from consumers. 3 screenshots and a paragraph type of shit.

Sure this will be great (maybe even essential) for a few certain projects but there will be so much crap will it even be worth it. Fuck no if you have to rebuy the game as well when it's out...which I'm sure won't be the case, slight worry for a sec.


This feels like Sony is saying we have no standards for indie games but I didn't read the full article, but I will. Unless they absolutely separate it into an obvious alpha/beta section, this is terrible news.
 
If Sony can fool people into paying to test their games for them, then more power to them.

I mean, MS charges us to play online, so this isn't out there.
 
This is a concept that will live or die based on its implementation. I have a feeling that if someone like EA had said in an interview that they wanted features like those described in the OP, that there would have been an ugly shit storm. As for allowing customers to buy into alphas or betas, it can either be completely awesome like Minecraft or result in a money grabbing opportunity for the greedy. Hopefully it's like the former more times than not, but developers have proven with DLC that they're more than willing to abuse such systems to turn a pretty penny.
 
Satchel said:
If Sony can fool people into paying to test their games for them, then more power to them.

I mean, MS charges us to play online, so this isn't out there.
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As far as I see this is not about games developed by Sony, more about Indie games like "Minecraft", so your comment really doesnt make much sense.
 
Gemüsepizza;51619398 said:
As far as I see this is not about games developed by Sony, more about Indie games like "Minecraft", so your comment doesnt make much sense.
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But who would be charging us?

Is Sony going to allow other devs to individually charge within their games? Or have their own stores?
 
Gemüsepizza;51619398 said:
As far as I see this is not about games developed by Sony, more about Indie games like "Minecraft", so your comment really doesnt make much sense.
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It's not even just about "indie games", it's about iterative development.
Stuff like DOTA 2, where they are constantly adding new content, polishing and changing things all around.
 
Satchel said:
If Sony can fool people into paying to test their games for them, then more power to them.

I mean, MS charges us to play online, so this isn't out there.
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Blizzard does it all the time except they pretend they released the final game.
 
Satchel said:
But who would be charging us?

Is Sony going to allow other devs to individually charge within their games? Or have their own stores?
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Does it even matter? I think it will be very clear in what state those games are, so I still don't see how Sony would "fool" people into paying for those games.
 
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