Sony’s Adam Boyes chases developers on new platforms

GamesBeat: It sounds like Jussi Laakkonen of Applifier wants you to go this extra step of having Sony work with a developer that was more doing a game as a service — a continuously updated game. Is that something for the future? Is that something you can do now?

Boyes: Especially when we look at PlayStation Network, we have DC Universe Online, and the one I’m really jazzed about, Dust 514 — which is done by CCP Games. And that ties into EVE Online; plus, they have a Vita companion app. Those guys are the masters of a game as a service. So that partnership is a great one, and it’s going to show that we have the ability to work on these games-as-service types of content.

GamesBeat: Do you think that would be one where you would update daily, or would it be more like monthly updates…?

Boyes: I think it’s up to the developer. We work closely with the developer. It’s their vision. We’re never going to tell them to do it this way or that way. It’s up to them.

GamesBeat: That seems like it would be where the biggest challenge lies: just moving fast enough to accommodate how ever many developers want to move this way.

Boyes: Yeah. And it’s our job as a platform to continue to evolve as the market evolves. I think we have a lot of different storefronts, and a lot of different places for people to purchase content, so we’re evolving. I think we’re growing that capacity really quickly.

GamesBeat: How far do you think free to play is going to reach?

Boyes: Like I said, we’ve kicked it off with some Vita titles and with some PlayStation Network titles. It’s really up to our partners to bring more content from that world and that realm to our platform. We’re always looking for a broad set of content, and I think that’s a big focus in the industry. Historically, the breakdown of content available on our PlayStation platforms is representative of the breakdown of content that people are interested in. So we’ll have premium stuff, we’ll have free-to-play stuff, and we’ll have hybrid stuff, as well.

GamesBeat: Sony’s indie track record is pretty good. A lot of your successes have come from that front. How do you keep that alive?

Boyes: That’s more for our first-party group, based in Santa Monica, Foster City, and San Diego. They’ve done a phenomenal job working closely with developers on Journey, Unfinished Swan, the PixelJunk games. That’s more of a question for those guys. I’m the new guy, so I look back and I admire all the stuff they’re doing because they’re just crushing it. They know how to get great content out of developers, and that’s phenomenal. Sound Shapes for Vita…. On our side, the third-party side, with the Pub Fund, whether it’s Guacamelee with the Drinkbox guys…. Our philosophy is we’ve built a grant system with Pub Fund where we basically do an advance against royalties. We find that some developers want to do what they’re going to do, and what that does is it softens the blow when they submit it. It gets approved, they get their money advanced to them, and that allows them the freedom to do it on their schedule. There are successes on both sides. But I’m just excited as a gamer for the great amount of content that’s coming to the platform and has been successful.

GamesBeat: Is there more flexibility now for a publisher to embrace, in order to get developers these days? There seem to be so many different platforms to pull developers in. Especially with, say, five mobile game developers self-funding a title for iOS. That seems to be the path of least resistance. How do you squawk louder than anyone else? Saying, “Hey, come on over here to my platform”?

Boyes: It’s a great point. If you have a finite number of developers, it isn’t easy. Now we have mobile and social in the mix. 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. [When] 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. 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.

GamesBeat: How do you deal with the perception that the PS3 console is nearing the end of its life, and that maybe they should wait or postpone any PlayStation title?

Boyes: I’m not seeing a lot of that in our partner discussions. We have more users than we’ve ever had. We have over 100 million accounts worldwide. We have very robust fans. It’s the lowest price it’s ever been. There’s more content available. I’m excited that we’re still at this point in the life cycle, and there’s still great, compelling content. The announcements we did at E3 with The Last of Us and Beyond: Two Souls — I think that’s the kind of stuff that people don’t expect, but it still shows that we’re still relevant, and people are excited to see the content. I think the most important thing for us is just for people to understand that we’ve got a platform where developers can bring their content to the marketplace on their terms. All they need to do is get licensed, and they can bring their content out on our platform. We want to get as many developers excited about the platform as we have consumers that are excited about it.