Sony announces new tools and middleware for PS4

Sony has entered into partnerships with GameMaker: Studio and MonoGame to bring new native solutions from each the middleware vendors to PlayStation 4.

YoYo Games and Sony Computer Entertainment have jointly developed a GameMaker: Studio-native solution for PlayStation 4, making it easier for developers to bring their 2D games to “efficiently convert their titles from PC to PS4 as of a result of GameMaker: Studio’s native export capabilities.”

Sony cites examples such as Heart Machine‘s Hyper Light Drifter, Teknopants’ Samurai Gunn, Hopoo Games‘ Risk of Rain, Benjamin Rivers’ Home, and Vlambeer’s Nuclear Throne.

MonoGame is a C+-based open-sourced engine first used in Matt Makes Games’ TowerFall: Ascension for PlayStation 4. In the coming months, the engine will also help bring Tribute Games‘ Mercenary Kings and Supergiant Games‘ Transistor to PlayStation 4.

Both GameMaker: Studio and MonoGame are available to all licensed PlayStation developers.

The company also announced that fully integrated solutions for Unity are now available for PlayStation 3 and PS Vita, with the early access version for PlayStation 4 coming in April.

Additionally, Sony announced it will release its in-house game development tool Authoring Tools Framework as a free, open source download via GitHub. The tool is used widely within Sony to develop games for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, and PS Vita. Examples cited include The Last of Us and Beyond: Two Souls.

Thanks, PlayStation Blog.