So you like to make games? That’s great news! Sony Interactive Entertainment has long been a destination for unique and creative games from small teams, and we believe that new Indie studios are vital to the growth of our platform and the industry as a whole. Indies bring new ideas, push the boundaries of what games can be, and consistently produce some of the most engaging and critically acclaimed titles year-over-year. But how do you get your game published on PlayStation? We’d love to help guide you through the process on how best to register for the platform and submit your game for partnership consideration.  

Getting Started

The first step to becoming a PlayStation partner is to head to partners.playstation.net and kick off the registration process. Besides the basic information about the studio, one of the items in the submission that help us better understand your needs is the Project Plan. Think of this as your “elevator pitch.” We don’t need you to go deep into the minutiae of the project, but some key details like style description, targeted release timing, platform plans, and potentially one or two key features of the game help guide the initial review process.

Once a partner registration is approved and you sign a Global Developer and Publisher Agreement (GDPA), you’ll have access to our backend tools which will allow you to learn much more about developing and publishing on our platform. We have also put many new programs in place to better support Indie partners on our platform through the PlayStation Indies initiative and look forward to continuing to build new opportunities to support indie developers and their games.

Indie Partnerships at PlayStation

Sometimes indies find themselves in need of a little extra help with launching their title and there may be opportunities available to pitch your project for partnership consideration. Here’s what we’re looking for in a great pitch:

  • Provide a brief description of your game. We want to know what makes your game unique and a great fit for PlayStation.
  • With every great game, there is an exceptional team of creatives building the title. Let us know a little bit about the team and their background.
  • A picture, or even better, a build speaks a 1000 words. We love visuals, videos, and anything interactive that you can share to give us a better understanding around what you’re making. 
    • Good: Concept art, in-engine art targets, music, or whatever else can set the tone of the game. 
    • Better: Video capture of gameplay, B-roll footage or moving in-engine capture is great. Gifs work nicely on slides as well.
    • Best: A prototype or build. Sharing a build is the quickest and easiest way for us to understand your vision. Showing your project this early may seem terrifying, but don’t worry! We are completely used to seeing games very early in development. We promise to put our “dev goggles” on.
  • Additional details and getting down to business…
    • What are the target platforms besides PlayStation?
    • What are your marketing timeline and plans?
      • Are you handling the marketing yourself? Or will you be getting external support?
    • Provide a detailed description of your project schedule and costs
    • What is your business model (Premium, Premium + DLC, F2P, GaaS, etc.)
    • What target countries/markets & languages does your game support?
    • Are there plans for live ops and/or post-launch support?
    • Most importantly, a clear ask from PlayStation. Is there a need for specific support?

When all is said and done, there may be cases where a “deal” isn’t always the right path. And that’s fine! There are still plenty of other ways we can champion and support your game at PlayStation and welcome all types of content on the platform.

That pretty much covers the basics of getting started and submitting for partnership. It may seem like a lot, but once you’re in the system, we provide many tools and routes for support and providing feedback. We’re always eager to help on the journey to becoming a PlayStation creator and look forward to supporting all the amazing new games yet to come!