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PlayStation begins a new initiative touting indie games

Jon Silman
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PlayStation introduced a new initiative focused on independent titles called PlayStation Indies along with a slew of new games.

“With PlayStation Indies, we hope to spotlight and support the best of the best indie games being published on PlayStation and the entire indie community as a whole. Our goal is to make PlayStation the best place to develop, find, and play great indie games,” longtime PlayStation executive Shuhei Yoshida said in a statement.

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PlayStation said that in the current economic climate, it’s getting harder and harder to get large gaming developers to take risks on new types of games and that it falls on the shoulders of indie developers to push genres forward with their experimental ideas.

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PlayStation has a rich history of popularizing indie games, with some becoming classics and tentpole titles. PlayStation Indies will add a new independent title to each list of free PlayStation Now games each month, beginning with Hello Neighbor in July.

“PlayStation has always embraced games with completely new concepts, like PaRappa the Rapper, Katamari Damacy, LittleBigPlanet, and Journey,” Yoshida said, “and we look forward to seeing what surprising new ideas will come next!”

Nine new indie titles will also come to the PS4 and the PS5, including Carto, a puzzle adventure game created by Sunhead Games, where players connect different pieces of a map to discover new areas and friends. Its charming art style and immersive music showcase how an indie game can provide ingredients like warmth and connection often missing from a major AAA release.

Another release, Recompile, is a platformer built around a hacking theme, in which the player controls a self-aware virus trying to avoid deletion. It’s a harrowing, fast-paced game built around pixels and flashes. The game has multiple endings and developer Phigames said it will require multiple playthroughs to fully experience.

Heavenly Bodies is set in space where the player controls an astronaut in zero gravity. It was developed by 2pt Interactive, and it features a control scheme reminiscent of walking simulator QWOP, with left and right triggers and joysticks used to control arms and R1 and L1 to control legs. It’s set for a 2021 release.

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