MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
Although triple-A games will ‘thrive’ on PS4, the hardware’s designer saysa complementary range of indie games will herald a ‘Renaissance of Gameson PS4’.
Talking in a keynote today opening the Develop Conference in Brighton,Cerny recounted the history of the new console and his own career.
His verdict, after spending five years researching and designing thecutting-edge PS4, is actually a pointer to the past.
Cerny believes that, as Sony has built both a more accessible platform anda newly accessible PlayStation business for developers, the end resultmeans a more varied slate of games on the platform, like those that originallyappeared on the first PlayStation.
He pointed back to ‘quirky’ original PlayStation games such as Parappa theRapper, Devil Dice and Intelligence Cube. These were well reviewed millionselling boxed games in the ’90s but wouldn’t have even been greenlit inthe more entrenched, triple-A-heavy PS3 era.
"Diversity of games at retail was quite high in the early PlayStationera," he said.
Cerny is optimistic that those kind of experiences can be more prolific onPlayStation (the format holder’s own first party commissions have chasedthis already – such as Journey or the PixelJunk series).
"Heavy content will thrive, but in many ways we will return to the freedomand broad content that made PlayStation unforgettable," he said.
PS4’s pitch to developers is that it is "easier to develop original titleson the platform" said Cerny. Sony has done away with concept approval, andthe ecosystem on the new console is "designed to foster the growth ofindie games" through the share button on Dual Shock 4 and heightenedimmediacy of downloading games, he added.
It was this that Cerny dubbed ‘The Renaissance of Gaming on PS4’.
