Sony Interactive Entertainment (PlayStation) is kicking off a new initiative called Play At Home for their PlayStation community. The new initiative comes in light of the current COVID-19 pandemic and the increasing number of countries going into lockdown to curb the spread of the disease. Play At Home is an initiative from the company to reward their players for staying indoors and also to ensure the sustainability of a vibrant, growing indie gaming development.
The first part of the new initiative is to keep gamers entertained indoors – in the most literal way, to encourage gamers to Play At Home. To this end, PlayStation is making Unchartered: The Nathan Drake Collection and Journey available for free on the PlayStation Store.
Unchartered: The Nathan Drake Collection collects three entries from the acclaimed Unchartered series from Naughty Dog – Unchartered: Drake’s Fortune, Unchartered 2: Among Thieves and Unchartered 3: Drake’s Deception which have been remastered for the PlayStation 4. Journey, on the other hand, is an indie adventure game by Thatgamecompany which conveys a simple, yet profound message as gamers travel towards a mountain in the distance. The critically acclaimed game brought a new dimension to game play with players able to interact with each other but without words.
The games will be available to download for free starting 15 April, 2020 at 8PM (PDT) until May 5, 2020 at 8PM (PDT). Once redeemed the games will become part of the players game library.
However, Sony Interactive Entertainment isn’t just stopping there. Play At Home is also the company’s commitment to Indie Gaming. As such, Sony is earmarking USD$10 million to support its indie developers. The fund looks to help indie developers in a time when a lot of the world’s economy is being disrupted. The company is looking to use the earmarked fund to help maintain and support indie studios who may be more affected by the disruptions. The company will make more details for the fund available soon.
