As the imminent output of Sword of the Seascheduled for August 19, 2025, Matt Nava, creative director of Giant Squid (Abzu, The Pathless), returned to the determining impact of the PlayStation Indies program in the studio course. Intervening at the microphone of the Podcast Friends Per Seconde, the creator qualified the intervention of Sony as saving support, essential to maintain the development of the project afloat. Matt Nava also took stock of the studio course, at a time when the video game industry is in full turbulence, with chain studios closings and canceled projects that accumulate like green algae on the Breton coast.
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“We get out of it in one way or another” Nava said.“It was complicated, for sure, and there were times when we wondered:” Are we going to get there? “. But we had truly fantastic partners in the PlayStation Indies program who have believed in this project from the very beginning. And when times have become difficult, they intervened and, basically, they saved us. All of this really held a few people there who decided that it was worth fighting to keep this project alive. It was frightening, but we are extremely grateful to them. »
In fact, Sony’s support for Giant Squid is not new, but rather from the era Abzûtitle for which Sony had organized the broadcast of the first trailer during the 2014 E3: “We had already worked with Annapurna on The Pathless, and after the release of this project, we started to chat with Sony, and Sony was always a very present partner for us. From the beginnings of Giant Squid, when we made Abzû, they broadcast our very first trailer on stage at the E3, at the time when it was still done … And it was huge, it was crazy! They believed in this project, even if it was just an idea. So yes, they have always been big supporters … “
Recall that the PlayStation Indies program was officially launched on July 1, 2020, under the leadership of Shuhei Yoshida, then responsible for the India initiative at Sony Interactive Entertainment. In a post published on the PlayStation Blog, Yoshida had stressed the growing importance of independent games in the video game industry, in particular in the face of the increase in the development costs of AAA games. He had expressed the wish to make PlayStation the platform of choice for independent developers, by highlighting unique and innovative creations. This program aimed to offer increased visibility to indesible titles, through regular highlights and dedicated support. And obviously, the program also served as a rescue buoy for certain studios.
Sword of the Sea will therefore arrive on August 19 on PC and PS5. It will be available day-one in the PlayStation Plus subscription (Extra and Premium).
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