New Indie Games Category Coming to PlayStation Store Today

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New Indie Games Category Coming to PlayStation Store Today

Indie Games on PSN

With innovative gaming experiences now more diverse than ever, PlayStation and Sony Network Entertainment are proud to stand behind indie-led development with the introduction of a new PlayStation Store “Indie Games” category coming later today.

This category builds on the support that PlayStation has offered independent developers in the effort to highlight some of the most unique gaming experiences on PlayStation platforms. Most recently, we released four stellar independently developed games during our recent Spring Fever event on the PlayStation Store. We also showcased upcoming PS3 and PS Vita games from indie developers along with highlighting two new games coming to the PS4 during our recent Indie Arcade at GDC.

This new category will house all of our latest indie titles in one convenient place.

Be on the lookout for some of our greatest hits, including surreal puzzle title Unfinished Swan and award-winning PSN exclusive Journey. You can also find some of our newest indie games such as the colorful Metroidvania-style PSN game Guacamelee! and imaginative platformer Thomas Was Alone, both of which launched to great fanfare during our Spring Fever event.

And these are just a few of our exciting indie titles in this category. To celebrate this launch, we’re offering special deals on the following titles:

  • Retro City Rampage: 50% discount to all from May 7th to May 21st
  • Papo & Yo promotional bundle containing the soundtrack and game: 40% discount (55% for PlayStation Plus subscribers) from May 7th to May 21st
  • Zombie Tycoon II: Free for PlayStation Plus subscribers for a limited time

Be sure to check back for new deals on select titles each week. What indie games are you looking to add to your digital catalog?

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86 Comments

5 Author Replies

  • Is this really a good idea? While it may not have been fair for Guacamelee to sit next to Grand Theft Auto in the store it provided a tonne of exposure to the game. Now people are going to have to go to the “Indie Games” section of the store. What if someone was never interested in Indie Games, or didn’t know what they are?

    • Pierre Gravereau

      Our Spring Fever event in store can give you a hint about the type of support we want to craft for top indie games on PSN. The indie game section of the store is an additional way to surface such games more often. It will not replace the support we are crafting for gems like Guacamelee!… :-)

  • Fantastic. Love the indie support Sony is giving and having a more visible section on the store is another move in the right direction.

  • Great! Im glad to see PSN giving more spotlight to Indie Devs – other than Steam not many other services do that

  • Great! It was about time to create this specific category. I put all my cards on indie development for the upcoming years.

  • How about add a feature to sort the download list!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Before the PS4..

  • “Is this really a good idea?”

    I dunno I mean it worked for XBL and Steam (to a lesser extent, because Greenlight is a trainwreck.)

    So anyway, is this where I’ll find my Spelunky and Hotline Miami amidst the clutter of unnecessary stuff since the PS store got the new look?

  • This is a good idea & i’m all for it. Lets hope new indie games that comes out get store front awearness as well to.

  • Somehow I doubt that these games will exist only in the indie section, they’ll likely be in with other games as well, but this new section will be a way to highlight the indies.

    I love the indie focus we’ve seen lately, I’m really looking forward to all the really cool games coming in that vein: Hotline Miami, Lone Survivor, Snapshot, Spelunky, The Binding of Isaac Rebirth, Velocity Ultra, Terraria (Vita), Stealth Inc, and so on.

  • @5 I was JUST thinking that!

  • Great idea! Keep the indie games coming. So much creativity and innovation is coming out of this area in the industry.
    Don’t eventually bury this section like Microsoft did with XBLA.

    • Pierre Gravereau

      Sure thing. Will try to do our best to present the best indies you may want to try and support. We work closely with our third party group to identify good indie games. We also intend to have special offers on awesome indies quite regularly.

  • This is a great idea, and, @ #1, I don’t think this is going to affect the front page location that a game like Guacamelee, for example, enjoyed. That would be counterproductive.

  • @1: I only ever go to browse all new releases on PS3. As long as indie games remain dislayed there, and on the front page with ads like they have been and not replacing them completely with a generic “Indie Games!” banner… then it should be okay. /run-on sentence

    On Vita, if they stay where new games usually are then it should be fine there too.

  • Oh and speaking of indie games. Spend whatever is necessary to get To the Moon on PS Vita.

    Thanks~

  • Glad to see indies getting some respect. Many of my favorite games this generation came from the downloadable space. Sound Shapes, Guacamelee!, The Unfininshed Swan, Velocity, Papo & Yo, Journey, and the PixelJunk Series have even outshine the majority of the larger scale games.

    Can’t wait for Velocity Ultra. I’m finally buying a Vita for it.

    • Pierre Gravereau

      Love the fact that you will be able to play not only great indies on your PS3 and PS Vita! I see that you are a PLUS member. As a result, you might already have a nice collection of free games for PS Vita by now. Glad you will be enjoying them on your new PS Vita as well. More PS Vita games are coming to PLUS every month…

  • So long as you guys don’t let Indies slip into obscurity with this like a certain service on a rival console then I’m ok with this.

  • I’d rather you update the entire store to improve its overall usability and current slow performance.

  • Good idea, albeit kind of late. It’s been frustrating seeing Sony take 7 years to get its act together about indies and then right at the end of the PS3’s life cycle. Bodes well for PS4 I guess. One thing, there needs to be a panel on the store front specifically allocated for promoting indie games. Also a monthly post on the blog highlighting the upcoming indie games for that month, so word of mouth spreads. One of the problems is that indies are released with little or no fanfare and then sales are dismal.

    Looking forward to Hotline Miami soon!

  • “Be sure to check back for new deals on select titles each week. What indie games are you looking to add to your digital catalog?”

    Weekly indie deals? That is awesome. Very much looking forward to the expanded indie inventory.

  • Yawn.

    At least it will be in its own category.

    While I like some of these titles, you can not compare Guacamelee, to God of War (even though it was only on the PSP).

    And that was a better title.

    Please get back to money better spent, than wasting it on whatever, until you do.

  • Zombie Tycoon II is a part of PS PLUS programm what does giving it for free to PLUS subscribers have to do with launch of Indie section?

    And yes it has been beaten over and over, make a “my games” or steam-like “library” section instead of that hideous “Download list”.

    • Pierre Gravereau

      Well, I believe that supporting indie games such as Zombie Tycoon II as part of a big program like PS PLUS says a lot about the support that PSN puts behind indies. That also makes Zombie tycoon II easily accessible to hundreds of thousands of PS3 core gamers at once.

  • @5 Its been requested many times. Your best bet is hoping the web store gets that option like xbox.com already has.
    @11 It took complaints from the devs to fix that.

    While Minecraft is an Indie game, it was never listed as an Indie Game on XBLA.

  • Seriously agrees with @21 IILOYDII.

  • @20 To each their own, if you don’t like them don’t play them, but some of us have loved the indie games that have come out. Sure, in terms of production values they don’t come close to a God of War, but that doesn’t make them any less enjoyable.

  • Great idea, Sony. Keep the indie love coming. :)

  • I love seeing all the support you give to Indie Devs.

  • @24 I won’t, unless, they give it away for free, and spend a couple of relaxing minutes playing the flowers demo.

    But why state the obvious?

    No need to be a Troll bout it.

  • Better late than never.

  • Retro City Rampage: 50% discount to all from May 7th to May 21st

    DAMMIT!!!!! ….OH WAIT lol until may 21st awesome

  • Please just don’t bury them away like XBL did. And as long as it’s been uat tested for implementation as to not break the store later today, then I’m solid.

  • @1
    Being in the same category with Guacamelee, some newer obscure good indie title could get better highlights that way.

  • @27 You’re misusing the word troll there. Regardless, it’s a little foolish to say Sony shouldn’t be doing something simply because it’s not your cup of tea. There’s obviously an audience for these games, and it’s not like they’re coming out at the expense of other more traditional games.

  • Love the indie support Sony :-D

  • Great! Love Indie Games! And Sony it’s supporting the independent scene with all they can!

  • @32

    Use the word anyway you like, as I prefer it my own way.

    What I do not understand is why you took it so personal, about an opinion.

    If you like tea go drink it, but why complain about someone stating, that they do not like it.

    That is, unless you are a employee, endorsing your own products.

    I on the other hand, am very much a consumer, and a very real target audience.

    But you, still very much resemble a Troll in the making.

  • I think this is a great idea. Thanks Sony, PS4 is going to be all right.

  • @ 35 I wasn’t taking it personally, but it’s a tiresome thing on the internet to read people jumping in on topics simply to state “I don’t care.”. If you don’t care that’s wonderful, leave the discussion then for those who do care.

    So you might use the word correctly in the future:

    Troll (pron.: /ˈtroʊl/, /ˈtrɒl/) Someone who posts inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community, such as a forum, chat room, or blog, with the primary intent of provoking readers into an emotional response or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion.

  • @35 Rezolution77

    Your comments seem a lot closer to trolling than Gorvi’s comments.

    That said, I’m glad that indie games are getting their own category and a place to stand out instead of getting lost in the sea of other releases.

    My only gripe is that all of these changes are coming near the end of a generation. :/ At least we can be confident that a lot has been learned this gen and will be improved upon with the PS4.

  • @29 You might’ve gotten Retro Ramage free due to Plus.

    @27 Flower is good, but buying Journey Collection is the better deal. EU gets the collection as a digital release.

    @28 I checked awhile ago and they did add the category to the store.

  • @ 37 AND 38.

    I find it amusing that two responses, concerning my dislike, were responded at roughly the exact same area of time.
    Which, if you would go back and read, was nothing more than my opinion, of not liking your product.

    I would think that your thinking is seriously one sided, as if you did not like my comment, you could have simply ignored it.

    Instead you feel the need to Troll someone for their opinion that does not “market” your software or “copy / clone” your sales pitch while using the appearance of being an actual consumer.

    -primary intent of provoking readers into an emotional response or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion-

    EXACTLY what Gorvi did, and what I could tell from the moment he replied, was doing.

  • I guess the question is: will indie games be found ONLY in this section, or will they sit by other games in all of the other old sections as well as have this section just to themselves?

    • Pierre Gravereau

      Indie Games will ALSO live in categories such as PSN Games, All PS3 Games, and yes… they will also be from time to time on the store homepage and in our usual promotional areas in addition to now have a section to themeselves. :-)

  • @40

    Seems like you just want to fight or you would take your own advice and ignore their comments, hey?

    On to more important things, Indie games having their own section is a great idea. Makes it much easier to browse for those games you’re interesting in then, instead of going through a million didn’t games to find then.

  • There’s undoubtedly many gamers who view the not-so-AAA scene (“scene”?) as Rezolution77 does, but that doesn’t rustle me so much as bums me. I’m sure that for all their grandeur, there’s a fair share of underwhelming AAAs, but I’ve found the more modest offers often seen from the indie scene (@_@’) more approachable, and without a worry of “game time” don’t outstay their welcome (personally: FFXIII to Journey).

    TBH, the Xbox LIVE Indie Games section had more in common with PlayStation minis as far as customer incentive and visibility go (any, ANY, chance for PS Mobile on console, BTW?). Any PS3/PSV release is more comparable to the Xbox LIVE Arcade, though I’d like more games to have PS Home unlocks.

    Glad to see a section set to showcase these titles, which I’m sure won’t diminish their promotions. Looking forward to these sales promos, though I do have the game portion of that Papo & Yo offer.

    For good measure, I’ll second that To the Moon request. Sometimes I hold off for trophies, shamefully.

  • Bonus of this section: Much less DLC to wade through! (I’m glaring extra hard at you, NISA!)

  • I really respect Sony for supporting and featuring indie devs. I like variety in gaming and indie games can sometimes be great.

  • @40

    What does that have anything to even do, with this discussion?

    “When all else fails, jump on the bandwagon”.

  • And for the record.

    I like some of the Indie titles, and think they are a nice change, such as Guacamelee, and Stealth Inc, which I look forward to.

    Simply do not like so much focused attention, on something that is diverting it from true titles.

    But silencing those of use who do not like it, while broadcasting all these likes, without much to explain why?

    Simply appears like corporate advertising, and less to do with the people who pay for it.

  • I got Retro City Rampage thanks to Playstation Plus and I still play it regularly. I honestly prefer it more than real GTA games because it’s simplistic in control, but very easy to pick up and do lots of things in small segments. It also helps that I have a pixel fetish, I guess.

    Likewise, I’m also really looking forward to Dragon Fantasy Book II.

    I’m glad to see indie games getting a larger focus on PSN. I can’t wait to see everything to come.

  • @48 Same. I got both ps3 & vita versions. Have yet to get back into it.

  • Great idea! Was thinking how nice it would be to have an Indie section just the other day. Now, speaking of indie titles, when is FEZ coming to PSN??

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