Sony Music launch indie game publishing label Unties
Starting Advance Wars-y
Because conglomerates are mystifying, Sony Music Entertainment has launched its own video game publishing label focused mainly on Japanese indies. No, it's nothing to do with Sony Computer Entertainment and certainly not Sony Online Entertainment, this is Sony Music getting into games. The label is named Unties and yup, many of its games are coming to PC. The first of these is Tiny Metal [official site], an arcadey turn-based strategy game due in November. Also coming up are a 3D fighting game which seems to turn tweets into weapons and a big ol' mecha rumble.
Sony Music Entertainment say Unties wants "to penetrate the ever-expanding video game market with indie games, which are continuing to draw attention even within Japan." I'm glad to see another publisher focusing on small-ish Japanese indie games (not all Unties games are Japanese, but most are). Publishers including Playism, Carpe Fulgur, Nyu Media, and Rockin' Android have introduced us to some, but there's a huge culture we barely see over here.
I wonder which sort of games Unties will focus on. Of their four announced games, two are odd action games, so maybe that? I'm up for that.
First, Tiny Metal. Made by Area35 and coming on November 21st, it's a turn-based strategy game which reminds me of the Advance Wars series:
Beyond that, without any release date yet, is Last Standard [official site]. It's a 3D action game which profiles players from questions or social networks and uses that to generate your weapon. I'm sure it's not in-depth or particularly reflective of tweets but it's a cute idea. Weapons, attacks, and combos can be customised too. Going by its old Greenlight page, Last Standard has singleplayer plus online competitive and coopeartive multiplayer. I do not know why the trailer is just two men in trenchcoats fighting in an alley:
The other Unties game coming to PC is Merkava Avalanche [official site], a mecha action game made by WinterCrownWorks. It's about ornate wheeled mecha fighting across a desert, apparently. "Mechs can move at high speed, dodge, or use wires to dart into close range and open fire or toss grenades," Unties say. Sure! Love me some wires.
Unties are also dabbling in VR with a new version of rhythm game Deemo but that's only for PlayStation VR.
I'm still surprised Sony Music are getting into this but hey, I'm interested to see what they do.