General

[gofreak-eu]

I was just reading this:

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-06-15-sony-playstation-mobile-will-avoid-app-store-junk

And to me it seems to add a layer of uncertainty to the whole process of planning a product for PS Mobile. At least for smaller devs.

It's one thing to have a list of technical requirements and clear guidelines (e.g. Apple's famous 'no fart apps' edict), but this sounds a lot more nebulous. 

Will clear guidelines be given, such that if you adhere to them, your game or app will be pretty much guaranteed release on the stores? And if so, when will such guidelines be released?

I don't think smaller indies can afford to develop for PS Mobile if there's a cloud of uncertainty over whether their end product will meet these unspecified 'quality' hurdles - especially when, for now, there is little cross platform tool support for PS Mobile. If something like Unity was supported, at least you can relatively easily spread the risk by having a backup plan of iOS or Android publishing from the same codebase.

I can see how this isn't a big deal for bigger companies who are already in contact with Sony and perhaps sharing plans with them - they'd get feedback much earlier in their dev cycle with regard to 'quality' - but for anonymous indie #2234 working quietly under the radar...it might be a shot in the dark?

Maybe I'm overstating the risk here, maybe these quality checks are not as significant as Jim Ryan might make them sound, but some feedback from Sony would be good.

[MartinCaine]

Personally I hope there is a formal procedure for vetting games and some pre-release alpha/beta stage at which we can submit something to get some feedback from Sony.

As an indie developer myself I believe that if you're working on a game and you don't think it's going to be high enough quality to truly compete with the best games on your platform(s) of choice then there's no point even making the game. I don't want to be lumped with the rest of the 'junk', I want my games to be highly regarded and for them to sell well so it's my job to ensure the game is as good as possible and guarantee that it will pass any quality requirements set by the platform holders.

[gofreak-eu]

I agree with the latter sentiment, Martin - I guess my concern is the process is as transparent as possible. 'Quality' can mean different things to different people. Platform holders can sometimes have funny ideas about this or use obscurity of the process to promote or demote their own or 'special partner' content.

As I think you agree, if there are going to be unusually strict or subjective criteria here, people can't work in a vacuum.

[niwrA]

I also agree that if you are intending to refuse apps when they don't meet a certain standard, that it is very fair to publish that standard in advance. 

[androvsky]

I'm not even planning on making a game at the moment, since I don't have a good source for artwork.  But I am planning on making some non-game apps largely tailored for Vita users, which we've been told is perfectly okay.  Now I'm a little worried they'll be rejected because Sony wants to push games at the beginning.  Or perhaps some other reason.  We've asked for some sort of guidelines since the closed beta and Sony's given us absolutely nothing.  For all we actually know, an NES emulator is okay.

[AlexMcDev]

Hi :

I agree with many of you about, but I think they are not planning to create a big LotCheck rules to submit it because then they will need a lot of people testing it. I think will be the most essential and the game quality from the point of view of graphics sounds etc, will be left aside.

Cheers,

[alxpwn]

There should be a definated technical requirements checklist and a dedicated QA and reviewprocess. As a developer who actually wants to publish to a plattform, one should be able to follow a trc and produce quality software which is acceptable for sale. There is no point in jamming the PSN with fart apps and click this circle games. If a game sucks alreay in graphics, mechanics and other points, it's not ready for sale anyways.

I am sure that if you do quality software with acceptable graphics, there is no point inbeeing afraid the soft gets rejected. Just the crap should be left at home.

There are a lot of very strange trends in app development these days and these shouldn't make their way to playstation imho. Things like building webstuff and plug it into a webview, as you see it a lot on the iOS plattform these days, or some people putting together a hundred buggy and crashing flashlight apps in their basement to grab 5$ from the banners in it every month. PSN has always been a high quality plattform, even the indie level Minis have to keep a certain high level of quality and this shouldn't be dumped for the favour of a huge appstore with lot of useless, crappy, promotional or ad poisened stuff in it.

In any case, if one does quality stuff, I think there is no problem in getting it submitted later on.

[jamesnorman91]

Hi everyone,

Thank you for your interest in the QA. We will be publishing the PlayStation Mobile Content Guidelines in due course however at this stage we cannot confirm its release date. We appreciate everyone's interest in this, and we hope to keep you informed of any news.
.
@androvsky, we will not be allowing emulators, or anything which runs a secondary executable.

- James

[Infinite_Daremo]

They're aint no QA like Sony QA. If it's anything like the PSP its all fun fun fun