Newsbrief: Popular game development environment Unity is coming to all of Sony's PlayStation platforms.
Unity already supports PlayStation 3, but new versions currently in the early stages of development will support the PlayStation 4, the Vita, PlayStation Mobile, and Sony's upcoming cloud gaming service as well.
While Unity will be present at GDC next week, it says that work on these platforms is too early to show off, though a release is expected this year.
This really seems like a bigger win for Unity then sony, Unity gets on yet more platforms but sony is just letting yet another engine work on their platform.
If you are familiar with Unity you may be familiar with similar historical releases over support for Xbox, Wii, PS3 and more recently Wii U. Console support isn't available in the way that iOS, Android or Flash licenses are, so this press release is mostly aimed at the handful of AAA studios with existing SCE licenses, and not the sea of 1.5 million indie devs that form the backbone of Unity's user base, most of whom wouldn't be able to meet the SCE license application requirements.
While a PSVita license for Unity might become available via the online store, I doubt 99.99% of us will be hitting build for PS4 anytime soon.
All the major consoles should have an area where the "sea of 1.5 million indie devs" can sell their games, it should be an obvious include in these times.
From my experience, it is easier than ever for serious indies to get developers status from Sony and Nintendo, can't speak for Microsoft because I haven't interacted with them.
Good point, but maybe we'll know more at GDC as it seems like the best time for Sony to outline and clarify their plan for Indie Games on their consoles.
Jamie Tucker: On the 360, pretty much anyone (and/or their pets) could make a game for them using XNA. In terms of making videogames for a console, XBLIG was probably the easiest route for developers. Perhaps Sony can counter with something similar (if not in terms of ease of deployment/development/testing, then at least in terms of publishing).
Smartest move ever on both sides. Sony allowing the most well known and easy to use game engine/development environment, that indies and small developers use. This is a huge coup. Bravo Sony, Bravo.
Yes - provided that those indies and small developers have a relationship with Sony and a $20k dev kit or two at their disposal. As Simon mentioned above (THANK YOU, Simon), Unity draws a lot of interest from small devs by advertising that they can deploy to consoles, but it's out of reach of the vast majority of their userbase. i heard that the WiiWare add-on was licensed to devs for $10k (later reduced to $8k when it became clear that WiiWare wasn't a very big money earner)
What you're forgetting is that it allows Sony to easily have access to indie titles and makes it easier for both developers and Sony publishing to possibly strike a deal. It's a lot easier for an indie dev to create on Unity, and then Sony takes a look at it for their indie publishing program. "It's written in Unity? Great, we'll help you publish on our platform by providing you tools to get it ready." It's a huge incentive for those indies to choose Unity rather than going with their own custom engine if they plan for the long term.
I am happy that this is happening as Unity is pretty amazing. Their GUI is impressive and I am going to try my hand at a game using it. Ryan and Simon are right though, it's not easy to get a license for consoles, but if you have a nice game to show them built in Unity it might be enough. With kickstarter being on fire lately funds can be raised for lots of indies to get the dev kits. Maybe that's just me hoping and dreaming a little too much.
To have a DevKit you must have more than money.
You need a real established company, real business building and they will send someone there to inspect security or will make you sign a contract stating you guarantee any non authorized personal won't ever gain access to their technology.
There was a guy selling a stolen PS4 DevKit on eBay not long ago. So, small studios won't have it any time soon, I would't hold my breath...
While a PSVita license for Unity might become available via the online store, I doubt 99.99% of us will be hitting build for PS4 anytime soon.
I suppose we'll wait and see.
Jamie Tucker: On the 360, pretty much anyone (and/or their pets) could make a game for them using XNA. In terms of making videogames for a console, XBLIG was probably the easiest route for developers. Perhaps Sony can counter with something similar (if not in terms of ease of deployment/development/testing, then at least in terms of publishing).
You need a real established company, real business building and they will send someone there to inspect security or will make you sign a contract stating you guarantee any non authorized personal won't ever gain access to their technology.
There was a guy selling a stolen PS4 DevKit on eBay not long ago. So, small studios won't have it any time soon, I would't hold my breath...
Most indies took a look at their tools then move back to Unity/UDK.
Major platforms was like "- Hey Nintendo did it... Me too!"; Won't affect indies though.