Sony Announces PlayStation Indies Initiative

Sony has revealed PlayStation Indies, which is designed to bolster the independent games catalog on PS4 and PS5. The program is being helmed by fan-favorite PlayStation executive Shuhei Yoshida, who previously served as president of SIE Worldwide Studios for over ten years.

In a post on the PlayStation Blog, Yoshida explains that PlayStation Indies was conceived “to spotlight and support the best of the best indie games being published on PlayStation and the entire indie community as a whole.” He also mentions that AAA game development has become extremely expensive and risk-averse, so it falls to indie developers to push the industry forward with new and exciting concepts.

More details on PlayStation Indies will be provided in the future, but Yoshida did confirm that PlayStation Now will feature a new indie game every month moving forward, beginning this month with Hello Neighbor. He also debuted nine indie titles that will come to PS4 and PS5 in the future. We have included the trailers for each title below.

F.I.S.T.: Forged In Shadow Torch (PS4) – “Animals fight back against a machine invasion” in this 2D dieselpunk Metroidvania.

Worms Rumble (PS4, PS5) – The classic Worms franchise mixes it up with real-time combat featuring 32-player cross-platform play across PS4, PS5, and PC.

Carto (PS4) – A “delightful adventure wrapped around a unique world-shifting puzzle mechanic.”

Haven (PS4, PS5) – Co-op play takes center stage in this relaxing exploration game.

Recompile (PS5) – An exploration-based platformer where you play as a virus “trying to escape deletion.”

Maquette (PS4) – Players will “uncover memories of a young couple in love, solving puzzles through creative thinking.”

Creaks (PS4) – A new puzzle adventure game from Amanita Design, the team behind Machinarium.

Heavenly Bodies (PS4, PS5) – A zero-gravity puzzler that will take advantage of the DualSense controller’s unique features on PS5.

Where the Heart Is (PS4) – A narrative adventure where players will move “between the grounded and the ethereal.”

Sony placed a huge emphasis on indies when the PS4 launched in 2013, but that enthusiasm became less apparent in the console’s later years. As the company prepares to launch the PS5 later this year, it seems to understand how vital indies will be to filling in gaps between blockbuster AAA releases on its new hardware.