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Sony worked with Dust 514 developer CCP to completely remove certain PSN policies for its upcoming free-to-play MMO shooter, the studio has revealed.
In an interview with Eurogamer, executive producer Brandon Laurino said that potential barriers to maintaining such an ambitious game on the service were overcome, leaving the developer to update the game as needed.
Console manufacturers such as Sony have been criticised in the past for offering closed systems and restricting control of games from developers via a series of perceived draconian policies and red tape.
"Relaxed is not even the word – they have ‘removed’," Dust 514 executive producer Brandon Laurino revealed.
"Together we’ve worked to identify all the barriers that need to be removed to properly operate a service such as this on a console. We have complete ability to service and update the game as much as needed.”
When asked whether updates would cost as much as $40,000, Laurino replied: "We’ve worked out a framework where it’s certainly not at that level, and essentially it’s not even a thought, it’s a completely trivial part of the equation."
Laurino added that the changes made to the PSN policies for Dust 514 would not be restricted to the title, but would have wide reaching effects for other studios.
"Certainly the intention here is to evolve the whole console business model, and we’re doing it in a way where it’s not just specific to us necessarily,” he said.
“This was very much an evolution and learning exercise for them as much as us."
Dust 514, which will exist in the same game world as PC MMO Eve-Online, with both titles having direct influence over one another, is slated for release in the Summer.
