Is Sony’s Pub Fund Initiative Video Gaming’s Future?

            In 2009, Sony announced that it was creating the Pub Fund for independent game developers. What the fund is, in a nutshell, is Sony covering the development costs (with advanced royalties) for a project with the agreement that they get exclusivity to the title in order to release it through the PlayStation Network. There is an approval process developers must pass in order for Sony to green light the financing. They also do not seem to care what stage of development an idea is at, because it has been said that they are willing to consider games that are at the beginning stages of idea development. This fund has proved its worth and value for Sony with many exclusive titles having been released in the past three years. The program has been so successful for Sony, that in 2011 they announced their continued dedication to the initiative by saying they plan to put $20 million into this program over the course of three years.

            The program has brought so many hits to the PlayStation 3 (PS3) console through their PlayStation Store, that they are now looking for developers to pitch ideas that will make the most of their new PS Vita handheld system. Now developers have another system and peripherals to work with. The inclusion of the Vita, along with its cross-functionality with the PS3, clears the way for more creativity to be put into games. This is also a winning solution for Sony because since the games are created exclusively for the PlayStation family of hardware, developers can more narrowly focus their attentions and what these systems can do that others may not. When creating cross-platform games, developers usually need to take into account the capabilities of all the consoles they intend to port to. This in some cases may hinder a game’s full potential. This argument of building better-suited games for the PlayStation network, is only affirmed by the rave reviews and following the majority of these Pub Fund games get.

            Sony is so optimistic and sure about the success of their program, that they say they are unmatched by their competitors in this specific field. SCEA Developer Relations head, Ted Regulski, says they not only pay better royalty rates than their competitors they also make the process easier for the developers than other publishing fun initiatives do. If there are any future game developers out there, this may be a good idea to look into. Not only because it gives you yet another financing option, but also because you get to keep full rights over your intellectual property. It should also be noted that exclusivity clause is not forever; should the game perform well on the PlayStation platform developers may choose to port to other systems further down the road in the future.