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SCEA, Codename Team With The Odd Gentlemen, Lazy8 For Social Games On PSHome

Sony's PlayStation Home has announced that independent label Codename is developing and curating games from the P.B. Winterbottom and Cogs creators, exclusively for the console's virtual environment.

Leigh Alexander, Contributor

July 19, 2010

2 Min Read
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Sony's PlayStation Home has always been positioned as a social platform, and now it seems SCEA is eager to drive that with some social games, announcing today that independent label Codename is developing and curating a series of new games exclusively for the console's virtual environment. SCEA and Codename will work together to convene indie developers from around the world who can create games for the "Home platform" on PlayStation 3 -- and four are already prepped for rollout "over the next several months," developed by "a mix of fan-favorite, die-hard experimental and undiscovered first-time developers." The aim of the program is, according to SCEA, to "further solidify PlayStation Home’s place as a leading social game platform." The focus is on that social element, apparently, as Sony's highlighting the ability to "share, interact and communicate with new and existing friends. Dueling Gentlemen is a strategy title played on Home's Plaza -- it's developed by The Odd Gentlemen, acclaimed creators of The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom. Indiecade 2010 Audience Award winner Peanut Gallery has developed Minor Battle, a team-based capture-the-flag style platformer that pits two teams against each other. Codename itself has developed Super Awesome Mountain RPG, which is described as blending board game and fantasy RPG elements. Finally, Home will host a 3D multiplayer version of Lazy8's gear-based puzzler Cogs as a "dynamic public spectacle in the plaza. "We’re thrilled to be partnering with PlayStation Home to create and develop games that step outside the parameters of traditional game development and we’re really looking forward to the creative opportunities that lie ahead," said Jesse Vigil, a founding partner of Codename. "Our model of pulling together teams of developers and allowing them to make their creative dreams a reality has only one main tenet -- any game created for PlayStation Home is graphically and visually entertaining to both play and watch, at the same time," he says. SCEA says Home -- now home to 14 million users -- is "at a critical point at its lifecycle." The primary goal of the Codename partnership, according to the company, is to boost social gaming on the service, and it also hopes the new offerings will attract new audiences.

About the Author

Leigh Alexander

Contributor

Leigh Alexander is Editor At Large for Gamasutra and the site's former News Director. Her work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Variety, Slate, Paste, Kill Screen, GamePro and numerous other publications. She also blogs regularly about gaming and internet culture at her Sexy Videogameland site. [NOTE: Edited 10/02/2014, this feature-linked bio was outdated.]

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