Dreams is an interesting game. Well, it’s kind of not a game, at least not really, it’s more an accessible game creation engine. Already, we’ve seen several pretty highly detailed creations for the title, which is now out on PS4 in early access. Anyone can access anyone else’s creations within the game, leaving some to wonder if eventually down the road you could actually create a game and sell it. A new interview with the developer leaves that door open.
In an interview with GamesBeat, several team members of the game discussed the future, including hopes about being out of early access soon, what they want to accomplish with the title, as well as the potential of actually selling your work down the road. They’ve thought about it a lot, and realize that at some point it’ll have to be something that’s addressed one way or another.
“Whether we allow people to do that outside of Dreams has been, actually, a big goal for the studio,” said Abbie Heppe, communications manager at Media Molecule. “It’s something we would love to do. But we need to figure out the best way to support that. Obviously if it’s published in the PlayStation store, we want it to be QA’d. We want trophies. There are all of these other elements. We’d love to do that kind of thing, but we don’t currently have a way to do it.
“[Allowing games to be sold] is something we’ve thought about,” Heppe continued. “We haven’t made any public announcements about any further monetization in Dreams, or that kind of system where people are getting tipped or getting paid for their content. We do want to encourage people to share. We’re a platform for amateur creation and hobbyist creators. I’m sure there will be people who are more professional in it. But these are all things we’re considering and thinking about.”
While the idea is interesting, and it’s something many players are probably licking their lips over, there are a lot of challenges posed by the potential move. Namely, if you create something in Dreams and sell it, do you own it? Or does Sony? How does one determine the cut of profit for each sale? And what about projects that are obviously based on other properties, like Mario or Metal Gear? Could those even be sold? And if they can’t be sold, could they even be made in something that now has an official market? It’ll be interesting to see where that goes, if at some point Sony and Media Molecule actually decide to pursue the option to sell creations.
Dreams is in early access now for PlayStation 4, with no set date yet for a full release.
