Jim Ryan on Indies 'It was just good to talk about in 2013. It is less relevant now'

Started by Legend, Jun 20, 2017, 05:25 PM

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Legend

Jim Ryan on Indies 'It was just good to talk about in 2013. It is less relevant now' - NeoGAF

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And one of the things you didn't really show were indie games. You didn't really show any last year, either. Now clearly indie games are coming to PS4 all the time. So why aren't you showing them anymore?
 One of the things we have realised is that these video collages of ten indie games shown in a minute, is almost meaningless. Nobody can really learn anything about the games in that sort of time. It is almost viewed as wasted time.
 There was a time and a place, in the early stages of the life of PS4, to make statements. It was more about making a statement that we are serious about the indies, and that we are doing this and that with the indies. No Man's Sky and so on and so forth, which broke out from that and carved its own niche. You know, right now, we have tonnes of indie content on the platform. And the fact that we elected, along with many other things such as Gran Turismo and PlayLink, not to give it its own spot on the stage this week, in no way means it is not important, or it is not there, or we don't worry about it. It was just good to talk about in 2013/2014. It is less relevant now. We have VR to talk about now, for example.

 
Source: http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...tions-jim-ryan
 

the-pi-guy

He seems to be on a roll a bit...  

Xevross

This guy continues to amaze me. He needs to stop speaking! :o

DerNebel

Seriously guys, I saw the thread on Gaf and was shocked by the reaction, cause it seemed like 90% of the people didn't actually read the full quote, so don't disappoint me and do the same.

What he says here is not wrong. Showing indies simply for the sake of showing indies just doesn't serve a purpose anymore, so at this point they'll of course only focus on indie announcements on their E3 stage that are actually able to garner a decent amount of attention, like Undertale this year. I'm always reminded of that (those?) Devolver Digital game that was put between FFVII:R and Shenmue 3 in 2015, who gained anything from that showing for instance? And I know Devolver Digital technically isn't indie, but their games do inhabit the same space.

Xevross

Seriously guys, I saw the thread on Gaf and was shocked by the reaction, cause it seemed like 90% of the people didn't actually read the full quote, so don't disappoint me and do the same.

What he says here is not wrong. Showing indies simply for the sake of showing indies just doesn't serve a purpose anymore, so at this point they'll of course only focus on indie announcements on their E3 stage that are actually able to garner a decent amount of attention, like Undertale this year. I'm always reminded of that (those?) Devolver Digital game that was put between FFVII:R and Shenmue 3 in 2015, who gained anything from that showing for instance? And I know Devolver Digital technically isn't indie, but their games do inhabit the same space.
I disagree. Sure it doesn't do very much but for indies that are struggling to get any attention, a 10 second clip and getting their name out there to over a million people helps a lot. Sony's conference was extremely short this year, there's no excuse for leaving indies out at all. If they cared as much as they did back in 2013/14 they would have shown some indies. Its a real shame, you can tell they're getting arrogant again.

Legend

Seriously guys, I saw the thread on Gaf and was shocked by the reaction, cause it seemed like 90% of the people didn't actually read the full quote, so don't disappoint me and do the same.

What he says here is not wrong. Showing indies simply for the sake of showing indies just doesn't serve a purpose anymore, so at this point they'll of course only focus on indie announcements on their E3 stage that are actually able to garner a decent amount of attention, like Undertale this year. I'm always reminded of that (those?) Devolver Digital game that was put between FFVII:R and Shenmue 3 in 2015, who gained anything from that showing for instance? And I know Devolver Digital technically isn't indie, but their games do inhabit the same space.
Yeah everyone on GAF is saying "read the full quote" but the full quote doesn't change the message.

Undertale wasn't in the E3 show. Devolver's game did get some attention but anything in that slot would have been glossed over unless it was a megaton.

the-pi-guy

It makes sense to want to show that they are supporting indies at the beginning.

But then it ultimately shows that they aren't supporting indie devs as much anymore.  A 30 second trailer on a stage, might get glossed over compared to a big game, but for a lot of devs that announcement is still going to be far bigger for them than they will usually be able to pull off. 

Plus, a good looking indie game on stage will get me excited.  Especially when indie games just seem to be getting better and better. 

DerNebel

Yeah everyone on GAF is saying "read the full quote" but the full quote doesn't change the message.

Undertale wasn't in the E3 show. Devolver's game did get some attention but anything in that slot would have been glossed over unless it was a megaton.
Was Undertale in the pre-show? I must have misremembered then.

Also I disagree, the full quote absolutely changes the message and most importantly the tone. The headline on its own has a very arrogant undertone and literally sounds like he's saying that indies are irrelevant to Sony now. The full quote instead to me gives off a much less arrogant vibe. To me he's saying that the focus for Sony has somewhat shifted and that there are more important things to show off for them than indies atm, like VR games.

Aside from that I suspect that Sony has kinda been burned in recent years in their work with indies, they've gotten a lot of backlash for NMS and other indies they've partnered up with have often taken forever to actually get their games out, or still haven't done that. Wattam for instance seems to be vaporware or Gang Beasts still isn't out on PS4.

Legend


DerNebel

Jun 20, 2017, 06:57 PM Last Edit: Jun 20, 2017, 07:09 PM by DerNebel
I disagree. Sure it doesn't do very much but for indies that are struggling to get any attention, a 10 second clip and getting their name out there to over a million people helps a lot. Sony's conference was extremely short this year, there's no excuse for leaving indies out at all. If they cared as much as they did back in 2013/14 they would have shown some indies. Its a real shame, you can tell they're getting arrogant again.
We could argue all day long about what they could or could not have shown at their E3 conference this year. I could have done without the whole VR part for instance. But a replacement indie part would have probably bored me equally as much, likely because the last "indie" game that actually really worked for me was Journey and since then even a highly praised indie like Shovel Knight seems absurdly overrated to me. But equaling Sonys decision to not focus on indies in their E3 show with arrogance seems wrong to me. They've had indies at last years PSX and I bet they'll have indies at this years as well, they are just not a focus at E3 anymore, which is the show for the big games for the masses.

Sony probably has research that shows that the reaction to these indie showcases at their E3 conferences has never been very positive, I mean I remember the internet mocking Sony for that shame even back in 2013.

Not published by Sony anymore.
Proving my point

SWORDF1SH

I'm going to stick up for Jim on this one. E3 is all about making statements and to make a statement you have to show. They wanted to get it out there that they support indies. Once they got that message across they saved the big stage for other games. Because Sony didn't put they spotlight on indies in their E3 showcase conference, it doesn't mean they don't support indies. Look at their blog, youtube and other events and you'll see they support indies plenty.

In this case it's another case of gamers being whining babies :P  to take what he said out of context