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Sony Music Forms Indie Gaming Publisher, For Some Reason

Unties will be partnering with indie devs to bring their hidden gems to various platforms, including the Nintendo Switch.

Charles Singletary Jr

October 17, 2017 3:15 PM

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Seemingly out of nowhere, Sony Music Entertainment is jumping into the video gaming world with a new indie gaming label called Unties. Not only that, this particular branch of Sony will be publishing titles on the Nintendo Switch in addition to PS4 and PC. 

"Recent progress in the game development world has made it possible for even small-scale production teams to create high-quality games. The evolution of digital publishing has also made it possible for creators to deliver their own titles to consumers all around the world, which spawned an indie game movement centered around North America."

The statement above, taken from the press release, carries additional weight due to the untimely demise of Visceral Games on today. The larger studio's ambitions were a bit too much and the team has been shuttered with their major Star Wars game being shifted to another development team. Smaller scale teams may, ultimately, be the safe bet in some instances going forward and the birth of Unties is a testament to the opportunities in that realm.

The name "Unties" means "unleashing unique games and unparalleled creative talent unto the entire world." This new publishing label will be seeking to unearth the hidden gems scattered about in the indie gaming community, handling PR and sales on multiple platforms. One of those platforms is the Nintendo Switch, which is having a great deal of success when it comes to indie games on their platform. As a matter of fact, a few indie titles have found homes on the Nintendo Switch's bestseller lists despite the company's typical success with their first party titles vs third party.

Tiny Metal, a classic style strategy sim from developer Area35, is the first title from Unties and it will launch on PS4, PC, and Nintendo Switch on November 21. Action title Last Standard and robot action game Merkava Avalanche will be next up for Unties, but do not have release dates or a full list of confirmed platforms at this time. Unties is also extending its reach to indie devs working on virtual reality experiences, partnering with Rayark for the VR reimagining of rhythm action game Deemo. Its tentative title is Deemo -Reborn- and it doesn't have a release date, but is confirmed to be coming to PlayStation VR.

Charles Singletary Jr

News Editor

Charles Singletary Jr keeps the updates flowing as the News Editor, breaking stories while investigating the biggest topics in gaming and technology. He's pretty active on Twitter, so feel free to reach out to him @The_CSJR. Got a hot tip? Email him at Charles.Singletary@Shacknews.com.