Sony's Discrimination Irks Indie Video Game Developers: Bloomberg

Several independent video game developers spoke out against Sony Group Corp’s SONY failure to support smaller game developers, Bloomberg reports.
Massive blockbusters enjoyed prominent display on the digital PlayStation Store at the cost of indie games. The outcry began when Taiwan-based indie developer Iain Garner tweeted against PlayStation’s secret ingredient for success without naming it.
In a separate interview, Garner alleged Sony asked attendees to pay $25,000 for front-page promotion on the store during a PlayStation video seminar.
Other indie developers shared charts showing that only fractions of their games’ sales were on PlayStation, unlike other more flexible platforms.
In contrast, Microsoft Corp MSFT and Nintendo Co Ltd NTDOF have shown more readiness to support and work with indies.
Many tweeted with their real names, and many spoke anonymously to gaming press outlets. The criticism led to thousands of posts on social media and gaming forums on Reddit and ResetEra.
Sony’s current strategy of prioritizing the biggest blockbusters, sometimes at the expense of smaller teams, proved costly for the smaller developers.
However, during the last console generation, Sony positioned the PlayStation 4 as the market leader to win the indies off rival competitors and smartphones.
Price action: SONY shares traded higher by 3.48% at $101.67 on the last check Friday.