If you had $20 million dollars, what would you do with it? Sony Computer Entertainment of America has a few ideas, and it’s all about exclusive content for the PlayStation Network.
SCEA has revealed that it’s made a massive three-year, $20 million dollar commitment to nurturing exclusive titles for its digital platform. The investment includes work with its first-party studios, as well as additional support for its Pub Fund program that helps back independent developers designing exclusive content for PSN.
Among the the first titles being talked about as part of this initiative are a PSN version of the indie title Eufloria, HandCircus’ action-puzzler Okabu, first-person shooter Payday: The Heist, and Papo & Yo.
“They all have some really interesting elements,” Brandon Stander, director of marketing for PSN told me over the phone earlier this week, “either in artistic style or gameplay or mechanics or context, that really sets them apart from the pack, and makes them innovative and artistic in style.”
That’s part of why Sony feels this investment is so important: setting itself apart from competing services like Xbox Live Arcade with exclusive, original content.
“Innovative, artistic, original, pushing the boundaries of gaming [and] storyline,” he said. “Absolutely, that’s the vision.”
Gamers have already seen the fruits of Sony’s Pub Fund, which was announced back in 2009. Titles like Joe Danger and Burn, Zombie, Burn! may not have been possible without Sony’s support.
Stander seems confident due in part to this commitment, the future of Sony’s PSN line-up is stronger than ever.
“We feel like we’ve got content in the pipeline and the partnerships in place in the first-party studios, all pointed in the direction of this exclusive portfolio,” he explained.
“We’re double down on PlayStation Network software, and under this additional investment over the next three years, we anticipate a steady flow of high-quality titles that can’t be found anywhere else.”
