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Iain Garner [Publishing Studio Neon Doctrine] releases angry rant on twitter about working with PLAYSTATION [Up: Multiple other devs co-sign]

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Garrison

Garrison

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,892
I will leave here some of his posts which details some of the major problems he faces apparently. At first seemed to not want to name who he was referring to but it seems he has singled out Sony here.
Here are some of the posts from the thread, but I would encourage to visit the fist post here to follow along:











Lock if old!

Second Kotaku article here:
kotaku.com

PlayStation Is Hard To Work With, Devs Say

While Microsoft and Nintendo are far from perfect, Sony makes their lives most difficult
kotaku.com kotaku.com
Some quotes from the Article:
"No platform is 'great', but Sony is particularly terrible," says another publisher to me via Discord. "They know it too—they've had a problem for a long time, and they've been telling devs they have a problem for a long time, but they've just never fixed anything, so the problem persists."
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"Sony does not understand what indie means," an independent publisher tells me under the condition of anonymity, via Twitter DMs. "Not at all. For them indie is something in the lower million budgets."
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get2sammyb said:
Just to follow up on this, we also spoke to a ton of developers about the problems with the PS Store. Some of this is information that's already emerged online, but there are a few new tidbits that just paint a terrible picture of what's going on behind the scenes: https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2021/07/report_how_playstation_is_failing_indie_developers

Sony must do better.
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See also threadmarks please.
 
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Sir_Bumble_Bee

Sir_Bumble_Bee

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Oct 25, 2017
1,478
Just saw this on my own TL. This kinda explains why the indie scene on PS is less... celebrated than Switch and Xbox
 
Man God

Man God

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Oct 25, 2017
38,300
Intellivision is having a rough week. No way noted indie lover and friend to all Sony would be the bad guy here.
 
RecRoulette

RecRoulette

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Oct 25, 2017
26,044
It's a shame how much PlayStation has dropped the ball with indies

I remember devs coming out and saying they couldn't put their game on sale because it'd conflict with PS's already running sale or some shit
 
Kyrios

Kyrios

Member
Oct 27, 2017
14,612
If I read one of his Tweets correctly, discounts on the PS Store are by invite only. I wonder if this is the reason why it's always the same games going on sale most of the time.

Also like how some indie games launch on other storefronts like eShop at a small discount and not PS Store.
 
Raijinto

Raijinto

self-requested ban
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Oct 28, 2017
10,091
IIRC the Nowhere Prophet (think that's the name of the game) developer was very unpopular here when they voiced similar concerns about game dev on PS even though it was failry lighthearted and constructive criticism. If things like this are becoming a pattern then I hope improvements can be made and that this site as well can handle this a bit better.
 
HebrewHammer

HebrewHammer

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Oct 27, 2017
2,524
Chicago
I don't see anything that's super unreasonable?

I can understand why it's frustrating for indie devs though. They spend all their time making a game only to have to spend their remaining waking hours promoting, negotiating, creating assets, etc.
 
Sirhc

Sirhc

Hasn't made a thread yet. Shame me.
Member
Oct 27, 2017
6,050
That featured bit is crazy, 25k sure whatever, but 30% profit share as well???? Fuck outta here.

Edit: for clarity so y'all don't quote spam my ass all day, in the context of him complaining about additional fees, reading that tweet as an additional 30% of revenue while featured, the tweet is very vague though so who knows.
 
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vixolus

vixolus

Prophet of Truth
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Sep 22, 2020
54,276
That's rough. I would imagine the account management bureaucratic nonsense is the most frustrating part, because without that your communication, approval and everything else falls apart.

Also, I wonder if people are going to latch on to the part about needing to jump through hoops and impress to get even a blog post and add it to the Abandoned conspiracy flames 😴
 
NotLiquid

NotLiquid

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Oct 25, 2017
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ehluigi said:
I remember it coming out how Sony treats smaller devs different to larger ones, at least compared to Xbox and Nintendo.
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Think a Nippon Ichi exec (or NISA) came out in protest against them once saying they don't care for smaller devs, though since they were part of a company with more profile they actually apologized for it since they obviously still cared about those bridges.
 
Jarod McChicken

Jarod McChicken

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Oct 27, 2017
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The early PS4 days are long gone, it has become pretty clear that PlayStation has become the less flexible and appreciated place to work for indies compared to Xbox and Nintendo.
 

Deleted member 80102

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NotLiquid said:
Think a Nippon Ichi exec (or NISA) came out in protest against them once saying they don't care for smaller devs, though since they were part of a company with more profile they actually apologized for it since they obviously still cared about those bridges.
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It's interesting that they did that, considering they basically pivoted to the Switch over the PS4 (See Disgaea 6 being a non-Japan exclusive release). Pretty nuts but Sony probably doesn't care to be quite frank.
 
Deleted member 32106

Deleted member 32106

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User Warned: Platform Warring
Defense force and nitpicking comments incoming?

The comment in-line with another thread

Edit: I don't want to be that guy but think about if this is Nintendo a reaction would be different
 
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zombiejames

zombiejames

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Oct 25, 2017
11,918
Someone with industry knowledge please clarify:

- Isn't the 30% cut the same across MS, Sony, and Nintendo? Has that changed?
- I'm assuming by that tweet thread that MS and Nintendo gives free, no-questions-asked and no-work-needed promotion for any developer that asks for it?
 
foxuzamaki

foxuzamaki

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Trying to find that thread I made about NIS saying how Sony kinda treats smaller devs like shit and then Sony made them apologize.
It may have been deleted
 

Deleted member 16908

Oct 27, 2017
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I'm not surprised, especially regarding the launch discount stuff. Another indie developer complained a while back about how much of a pain Sony makes it for you to put your game on sale.
 

Deleted member 1003

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That sucks for indies but if you're fine with burning bridges then name the Platform. We all know what you're talking about.
 
catboy

catboy

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Oct 25, 2017
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i don't think the $25k is in specific reference to getting a blog post. maybe things have changed but i know a dev who got one in 2018 who certainly didn't have $25k to throw around.
 
EagleClaw

EagleClaw

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Dec 31, 2018
10,679
People told me that everyone can write a blog post for their game on PS Blog.
That is what Hasan Kahraman did.
 
riotous

riotous

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Oct 25, 2017
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This sounds like a person being pretty weird about a business relationship that doesn't sound too terribly difficult or unexpected to release to a platform that isn't meant to be fully self service.
 
delete12345

delete12345

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Nov 17, 2017
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Iain Garner said:
So before you launch, you need to
1. Develop the game for Platform X
2. Get through their incredibly difficult lotcheck spread over 3 generations of backend software
3. Submit a Platform X specific trailer
4. Write a Platform X Blog which
5. Submit multiple forms for social media
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What is #4? His sentence seems to be cut off...
 
catboy

catboy

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riotous said:
This sounds like a person being pretty weird about a business relationship that doesn't sound too terribly difficult or unexpected to release to a platform that isn't meant to be fully self service.
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being unable to put your own games on sale seems pretty shitty for both you and the people trying to buy your game actually
 
.exe

.exe

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Oct 25, 2017
22,217
Not remotely surprised it's Sony based on the Vita game store's handling. Doesn't paint a pretty picture.
 
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