Ether One Devs Want To Release On PS4, No Plans For Xbox One

Ether One will be releasing on PC on March 25th. We recently wrote about the game in a round-up of upcoming games that are currently looking prime-time and super-well on Steam's Greenlight service. Developers White Paper Games have more on their minds than just getting their independent title up and out on PC, though, they plan on bringing their very interesting looking title to the PlayStation 4 as well.

Speaking with OnlySP, White Paper Games' Pete Bottomley commented about the status of the game and its potentiality for making the jump to home consoles, saying...

“We’d be really excited to get Ether One onto the Playstation for two reasons. Firstly, we’re all big Playstation players and when we’ve been sitting on PC’s for 15hrs a day, we generally like to go home and pick up a PS3 controller instead of sit at a PC. We also love their exclusives and PS+ services!“Secondly, Sony reached out to us and have been so great and friendly towards our studio. They drop in from time to time just to say hey and ask how development is going so it’s a nice relationship! They’ve been so helpful in our development so we definitely feel like we would want to work with them however no plans are currently set in stone.”

This mirrors a lot of other developers who have also been eying their games for release on Sony's latest console. Other titles like Outlast, Don't Starve, Primal Carnage and Shadow Warrior are a few other indie games that appeared on PC and then made (or are making) the jump to the PlayStation 4.

Sony is trying hard to emulate their success during the PlayStation 2 era by getting as many lower and mid-budget studios to release games on the platform to extend and expand the versatility and appeal of the PlayStation 4. It's a brilliant move that's also being mirrored by Nintendo, too.

Bottomley, however, doesn't want Ether One to be just another PC to PS4 port, though. The team wants to do something special for Sony's newest console...

“We want to focus on getting Ether One out on PC & Mac before we think about consoles. If we were to do Playstation version of Ether One, we’d want to make the most of the features and power of the PS4 and instead of a direct port, we’d love to explore what we can do with the tech available to us.”

That's excellent news.

Sony seems to see and understand that the future of gaming is in the hands of indies. Whether the fanboys for the AAA sector want to believe it or not, those droll annual outings of stolid pastiche won't last for long, and there's no sustainability in dumping $100 million into games people are growing tired of playing.

Sadly, the above concept is partially lost on Microsoft, as Bottomley makes it known that they've had no communication with the company whatsoever, saying...

“We haven’t tried out the ID Xbox. To be honest, we haven’t really spoken to Microsoft at all and no one has ever reached out to us from there so we don’t currently have any plans for Xbox.”

This is not to say that Microsoft has no pursuant application of securing independent designers – quite the opposite. The company has recently acquired 70 more developers in their ID@Xbox program, but as to what games will be released and how Microsoft will handle the promotion and marketing availability of these titles remain to be seen.

On the upside, at least PS4 owners know that there are actual developers making legitimate efforts to put original games on the platform that break through the mold of the norm.

Will Usher

Staff Writer at CinemaBlend.