What is PlayStation First? It’s essentially a Sony sponsored attempt at fostering new talent, at helping students bring new games and new experiences to the PlayStation platform… first. Hence the name.
The end result? More Australian developed games could be making their way to PlayStation platforms in the future.
The longer version: PlayStation First is Sony’s academic game development programme. It helps support the best eductation institutions throughout the world with development kits and other tools, to help students make the transition into development in the real world. It’s a very cool program. In Australia Sony is working with Australian-based development team Nnooo to publish some of the best student games currently being made in Australia.
At PAX Australia this year Sony Australia unveiled the fruit of its Australian version of this program. And some of the games are actually super interesting — a 2D platformer that forces players to die to solve problems, a two-player arena brawler, an 80s inspired um… music thing, a top-down survival horror that deliberately slows down action.
A lot of cool stuff.
It’s a great opportunity for young developers. The PlayStation First program, in this case, is offering publishing contracts to the developers of these games. So hopefully you’ll be able to play these homegrown games on your PlayStation 4 or PlayStation Vita in the near future.
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