Microsoft has swung open the gates to indie developers by making the Xbox One a development kit in its own right!

But how much does it cost to start creating indie games for Sony's PlayStation 4?


Earlier today we reported on the big news that Microsoft plans to release info at Gamescom that all Xbox One systems can be development kits and they going to open the flood gates to allow indie's to self-publish, but now PolyGon is reporting on how Sony is supporting the indie developments, infact instead of charging them $2,500 upfront for an official devkit, they are 'loaning' them out like candy for you to play with for an year to get you game rolling along so you can publish it maybe before even paying a dime to Sony!

Polygon spoke to various development sources who say that the PlayStation 4 dev kit costs about $2,500, which is $2,000 more than an Xbox One. Indie Xbox One developers will also pay a fee to Microsoft, which a source said is a few hundred dollars. Microsoft declined to talk publicly about the fee.Although this $2,500 price is being cited in development circles, the game-makers we spoke to all said that Sony had lent them dev kits for a limited period of one year, for free.

As of right now, there are no dev kits being sold. Sony is sending whatever it has available to favored developers. "All the indies I know got them for free," said one developer. "Sony has been amazing about kits and development thus far."

Another developer said that Sony is focused on loaners, rather than collecting fees. "They are handing them out like candy," he said.

"Self-publishing has been available on PlayStation platforms for over five years, so it's nothing new," said a spokesperson for Sony. "The process of devs bringing their games to market has continued to evolve, and PlayStation has led the charge in adapting and embracing new publishing rules to allow for more creative freedom for developers."

The spokesperson pointed toward Sony's loaner dev kit program, as well as other support mechanisms. "With self-publishing, we keep things really flexible for developers and give them lots of options, including funding through the Pub Fund, which is back-end funding paid upon completion of the game, we waive patch fees for indies and all digital titles and we embrace new business models like F2P, episodic and subscriptions. We've had more than 500 games self-published on PSN."
So it seems Sony support system is welcome and more kind to Microsoft, even with their news that 'every Xbox can be development machine', most likely it will be very limited and controlled, with some reporting it will be limited to 3gigs and Windows Store Apps only, but until they release more info at Gamescom we really don't know what system will end up being more better for indie game devs.

NEWS SOURCE: So how much does it cost to develop for PlayStation 4? (via) PolyGon