Sony's Shawne Benson explains how Stray became a perfect third-party pick
Sony Interactive Entertainment's (SIE) push for great third-party games on the platform took an interesting turn in 2022 when the company announced that sci-fi cat platformer Stray would be a PlayStation console exclusive—and that it would be the first game available on PlayStation Plus' new subscription offerings.
It was a big moment for developer BlueTwelve Studio. Though the game would also launch on Steam, the combination of console exclusivity and subscription service availability would put the little game about an intrepid cat in a primo marketing position. It and publisher Annapurna Interactive definitely reaped major benefits by working closely with PlayStation proper.
So, what makes a deal like Stray's possible? As it turns out, Sony was eager to help answer that question. Shawne Benson, global head of third-party portfolio and acquisitions at SIE swung by with some interesting context about the process for signing Stray, and some examples of how the platform holder wants to work with other third-party developers in the future.
Given Sony's aggressive pitches to investors in the last year about live-service games and robust third-party offerings, we were eager to chat. Here's what Benson told us.
Like the rest of Video Game Twitter, Benson was hypnotized by Stray's pitch when BlueTwelve showed footage off in 2016. Annapurna jumped in around then to sign a publishing deal for the game, but Benson still had her eye on it.
"I was so obsessed and mesmerized instantly," she recalled. "It's very rare that we'll see a game where it's absolutely love at first sight." She noted that Stray had a lot going for it in terms of attracting appeal. Its platform-based gameplay and use of cats attracted a built-in audience (despite it
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