Sony released the PS4 in North America on Friday

Sony to encourage Australian game development students to publish on PlayStation Network

Sony said today that it is creating a partnership that will result in more student-made games for the PlayStation 4 game console.

The PlayStation First program will encourage students to make video games using development kits that Sony, game studio Nnooo!, and Australia’s Academy of Interactive Entertainment will provide. The idea is to get the next wave of indie game developers hooked on the PS4, and it shows that Sony is willing to reach far and wide to find the next generation of hit makers for its platforms.

Nnooo! will work to identify and fast-track talented student teams for publishing their games under the PlayStation First program. Sony, the Academy of Interactive Entertainment, and Nnooo! will present the first games from eight student creators at the upcoming Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) fan convention in Melbourne, Australia.

The games currently in development include Rumble Academy, Retrovision, Desperate Mile, and Necroman.

The developers will get access to training and tools so they can develop commercial games. The games will be published under the Nnooo! name on the PlayStation Network.

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat at VentureBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.