Sony 'Pub Fund' paying off for PSN-exclusive devs

by Randy Nelson { Apr 21st 2009 at 3:30PM }

Announced during GDC 2009, Sony's development-cost-matching scheme, "Pub Fund," is already garnering praise from the first company to take advantage of it. Burn Zombie Burn studio Doublesix tells Develop that the program -- which matches a PSN game's production costs in royalties, in exchange for PS3 exclusivity -- is "invaluable," not only in terms of funding, but marketing support as well.

James Brooksby, studio head of Doublesix, spoke to other developers, saying, "I think there's a number of other ways in which the Pub Fund can help you, not least because Sony suddenly has a more vested interest in your product's success." Since Sony is looking for a good return on its considerably sizable investment, not everyone can get on the Pub Fund. "Obviously there will be a level of quality expected from Sony's side, so not everyone will be suitable for Sony either," said Brooksby.

"We put a lot of money into the marketing of Burn Zombie Burn," Brooksby said. "And our own funding, along with Sony's, helped achieve great exposure for the game." That exposure has left the developer "absolutely delighted" with BZB's sales to date, and, according to Brooksby, the team is already at work on its next title -- no doubt with the assistance of the Fund.

Tags: burn-zombie-burn, development, exclusives, indie, psn, pub-fund, sony

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

adolson @ Apr 21st 2009 3:35PM

Your RSS feed says you posted this story 55 minutes from now. Impressive, I am time-traveling!

DeepFriedSushi @ Apr 21st 2009 4:03PM

okay, all those sony fanboys who said only ms "pays" for exclusives need to eat a sock.

aristokrat @ Apr 21st 2009 4:06PM

Way to reply in a coherent manner, as opposed to top-replying as a way to get your invaluable opinion in everyone's face.

megapenguinx @ Apr 21st 2009 5:54PM

You're RSS eating Pacman fits your comment quite well :D

traceur_ryuk_shinigami @ Apr 21st 2009 3:36PM

Sony's on the ball, eh?

acefondu @ Apr 21st 2009 3:38PM

Gah, I still have to get that game. Looks like so much fun!

halebound00 @ Apr 21st 2009 3:54PM

This game is so much fun its ridiculous. I got it last night and ended up playing it for 5 hours and had no clue how fast time went by. Even my wife loves it. It's the best purchase I've made in a while. Get it ASAP.

Hydrophobicfish @ Apr 21st 2009 3:55PM

It is pretty good, definitely worth the 10 bucks.

The only complaint I have with it, is how it's not dual-stick. It fires forward, or there's a button to lock on to the nearest zombie (you hold it, and it dynamically choses the closest)

But that's a minor complaint. It could easily be patched to give the option for dual-stick, but even if it's never patched for that, it's not that bad, the controls still work.

AmanteDuck @ Apr 21st 2009 4:00PM

@ Hydrophobicfish

I thought that too until I began playing around. If you use the aim function and THEN move the right analog stick you can free aim rather than having it choose the closest or easiest target. It's a bit backwards but it works pretty well and is great for any auto weapon. Give it a try

Letters2Kay @ Apr 21st 2009 4:55PM

@AmanteDuck

Yep, you know your burning zombies! I told a friend who had been playing the game a few weeks already about the R-Stick aiming over-ride and it blew his mind. Works like a charm...

iBirch @ Apr 21st 2009 3:39PM

Sounds good to me if it means getting more PSN games.

Brett from Atlanta @ Apr 21st 2009 3:40PM

This is a fantastic idea, good to see this kind of approach to help devs make better games.

KwietStorm @ Apr 21st 2009 3:44PM

I haven't played it yet. Is there a demo? Online multiplayer?

Letters2Kay @ Apr 21st 2009 4:50PM

I responded to your comment, but it just went ahead and made it a new comment instead. Answers below... :S

coyurtney @ Apr 21st 2009 4:08PM

game does look fun but I thought it was freakin crazy how the day it came out they had no demo, no videos or pictures of the game at all. How woudl you know what you are buying?

Letters2Kay @ Apr 21st 2009 4:26PM

I hear you. I held off for several weeks on it and finally went ahead and gave in. I'm so glad I did. It's just as good as you might expect it would be...

Letters2Kay @ Apr 21st 2009 4:23PM

"Burn Zombie Burn" is the best downloadable game I've played since "The Last Guy." So. Much. Fun.

If you have a PS3, you need to download this game. Period.

Ashitaka @ Apr 21st 2009 4:33PM

But
Eden > The Last Guy
Monsters > The Last Guy
!

Letters2Kay @ Apr 21st 2009 4:41PM

Nope, the Pixeljunk series doesn't do anything for me even in the least. None of them.

My favorite PSN games:

Flower
Flow
Burn Zombie Burn
The Last Guy
Echochrome
Lumines Supernova
SSF2HDTR
1942
Commando 3

offday @ Apr 21st 2009 11:03PM

Ashitaka, Being both wrong and dumb is a common thing in your posts, huh?

Nobledevil @ Apr 21st 2009 4:35PM

It's nice to hear that Sony's idea for exclusivity worked out. It's better to hear that due to their investment, the game has to be quite good to get Sony's money, which will result in a growing library of bad-assery from PSN.

Letters2Kay @ Apr 21st 2009 4:46PM

No demo, but if you have any idea of what this game is about and are at all interested in it, you won't regret the purchase. Unfortunately there is no online multiplayer, but that is the only feature missing. Trophies, offline multi, and plenty of challenge modes and the like are present and accounted for.

Letters2Kay @ Apr 21st 2009 4:47PM

Whoops... that was for @KwietStorm. Page loading is screwy today...

Petebot330 @ Apr 21st 2009 5:02PM

It's funny, almost all of the games I wish the 360 had are PSN titles...

Jacksons @ Apr 21st 2009 5:31PM

If it's making everyone happy, then more power to it.

myabsolution @ Apr 21st 2009 7:02PM

i want this game on xbla...

so i guess thats not happening?

They could very well make even more money since im sure the market for this game is bigger on XBLA.

Blkant @ Apr 21st 2009 7:32PM

No its not, just like the majority of good titles this year. Get used to it and stop asking about "I guess this isn't coming either" or "they would make more money on xbrick". There is a reason people are choosing to develop on the PS3 lately, because while in the microsoft universe money is all that maters, however, a quality game is the larger focus in ours. I think sony's old saying applies well here. Live in your world (of money and greed), and we'll play in ours. :P

It really shouldn't be, but that was really satisfying :D

DrunkRaba @ Apr 21st 2009 7:33PM

and even bigger on PC or WII, but if you want it, get a PS3, simple as that.

8-bit.artist @ Apr 21st 2009 7:52PM

drunkraba: this game would NOT be bigger on the Wii.

myabsolution @ Apr 22nd 2009 5:06AM

Thanks for the fanboy response Blkant.

All I was saying was that I would like to play the game, and that indeed there are far more American 360s than Ps3s, so the potential for more money is there.

And "quality" is mostly about tastes. 360 has lots of it, so does Ps3.

ottoman673 @ Apr 22nd 2009 6:22AM

So in other words, Sony's price matching for developing and marketing?

...how is that not paying for an exclusive?

I think it's definitely fair to say that you PS3 fanboys can STFU about exclusive DLC on the 360 when you guys get WHOLE GAMES cause Sony wants to shell out the cash for them.

Tyler @ Apr 22nd 2009 10:04AM

I personally never said Sony doesn't pay for exclusives, but I do think the main difference between them is; What Sony pays for is quality, and encourages new game designs/ideas.
Compared to Microsoft just chucking cash at anything to try and say it has more stuff.

Poisoned Al @ Apr 22nd 2009 6:58AM

They're buying new titles with beer money?

Tyler @ Apr 22nd 2009 10:05AM

its better than beer? Right? RIIIIGHT?!

Frank @ Apr 23rd 2009 1:13AM

No, they're putting donation cups in pubs to help them make up for last year's operating losses.

Poisoned Al @ Apr 23rd 2009 7:32AM

Okay, it was a crap joke, but surely you could see it was A FUCKING JOKE? Jesus.

ottoman673 @ Apr 22nd 2009 6:02PM

So exclusive DLC for GTA IV isn't considered quality?

How about Braid? That was a 360/PC exclusive and it was a new idea.

I will admit, i'm jealous of Burn Zombie Burn and Warhawk, but really, what else is there?

Noby Noby Boy is an abstract idea more than it is a game.. so are Flower, PixelJunk Eden, and a couple others...

Kazper @ Apr 22nd 2009 8:06PM

The difference - at least to me - is between putting your exclusivity money to work promoting unique and interesting games like BZB, Warhawk, LBP, Pixeljunk (all of them), etc. versus spending your money on trying to buy exclusivity for big name titles, or even worse DLC.

I don't know if MS paid for Braid exclusivity. If they did - then good for them, because that's exactly the kind of games you should help promote on your console. But buying 1 year exclusivity deals on eg Bioshock, or buying exclusive DLC for a game (like Fallout 3), is just pissing on the face of gamers waiting to play those games. I'm frankly most surprised that any company are dumb enough to take such a deal. It certainly assures my money isn't spent on their products - now or ever in the future.

But developing new and exiting titles and ideas - now that's an idea I can get behind no matter who does it. Then the money is actually well spent on giving the gaming community brilliant games we might not otherwise have gotten. Exclusivity is a fair return on that.