Adam Boyes (aka Adam Broyes), VP of Developer and Publisher Relations at Sony Computer Entertainment America, took part in an interview with Gamasutra at E3 this week. During the talk, he revealed that there’s a global SCE team looking at potentially bringing early access alphas (Destiny is an example of that) and paid betas to the PlayStation 4, all in an effort to make publishing on the platform easier:
We’re always looking at different ways to make life easier [for devs]. We’re leaving no stone unturned as to what we can do. We actually have a global strike team, plus an SCEA strike team, that’s in charge of looking at [possibilities] of early alpha access, and paid betas, which we’ve allowed before. We’re always looking for ways to make development more accessible, looking at the barrier of entry.
According to Boyes, selling games still in development on PS4 (like Steam Early Access allows developers to do) is in serious conversation right now at PlayStation, but he adds that there are some hurdles – mainly having to do with quality:
That’s one of the massive conversations we have internally — that, at what point does [a game meet standards of release]? Because at some point, we have to ensure that we’re being mindful of the consumer. You don’t want someone to stumble across [a game in alpha] and expect it to be finished, and have a negative experience.
At this point in time, Boyes says they’re just working through the paid alpha discussions right now and “figuring out what is okay.” Within this conversation, they’re creating the technical requirement checklist (TRC) that all developers would have to adhere to before selling their title at the early stage.
Boyes finished by saying the TRC is “something that’s at the top of my mind every day.”
Would you like to see the PS4 get early access to titles?
