Traditionally, consoles have been defined by the highest budget AAA titles. However, now that offering diverse online content is important, looking into social and mobile developers is vital for platform makers like Sony and Microsoft.
“I think that’s part of the evolution,” said Sony VP of publisher relations Adam Boyes. “Originally, we had a different policy on free-to-play. Now we have free-to-play content and micro-transactions We used to have certain requirements for publishing. Now we have none for developers to publish other content. You have to go through the process of submitting for concept approval, but all of these things are things that have naturally evolved over the console lifecycle. We’re evolving more than ever now because the industry is evolving.”
Boyes pointed to PlayStation Mobile as a way that Sony is embracing these new mediums of gaming. “Now we have mobile and social in the mix,” Boyes notes . “You absolutely need to tell a more compelling story. The compelling story that we feel we have is, we bring gamers that are rabid about content. It’s a certain type of people who come to our platform looking for content. People fire up their PlayStation, when they fire up their Vita, when they’re playing a PlayStation Mobile game; they’re looking for what PlayStation brings to the table.”
“That’s great, compelling content. So we feel like we rise above that discussion. If you look at a lot of the other players, they’re not focused on games first and foremost. Right now, to get your game on PlayStation 3, it’s three button presses. With other consoles it could take 10 or 15. Especially when you look at a lot of devices out there that do multiple things,” he noted. “PlayStation is a gaming machine first and foremost. It does all kinds of awesome great stuff, but at the same time, when people fire it up, they know what they’re getting. That’s what excites us.”
Source: VentureBeat
