Sony Music Expands Beyond Mobile With Unties Publishing Label

Sony Music wants to see if it can replicate the success of Fate/Grand Order on PC, PS4, and Switch.

News by Mike Williams, Reviews Editor

17 October 2017

If you weren't paying attention, you might not have noticed that Sony Music Entertainment quietly started publishing games. Sony Music reached into its animation subsidiary Aniplex to create and publish to mobile games in Japan: Fate/Grand Order and Magia Record: Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story. The former is a smash hit in Japan and just launched in North America a few months ago. The latter title is also doing really well for Sony Music.

Given the success in the mobile gaming space, Sony Music is now trying to see if it can find that same level of success in the console space. That attempt comes with a new publishing label named Unties. Unties seeks to find independently-developed titles and give them a push on various platforms.

"At Unties, we dig up the masterpieces buried in those situations, and support them so that more users notice and pick them up. We spread information about excellent games and sell titles for multiple platforms," said Sony Music in a press release (translated via Gematsu). "The name 'Unties' comes from the thought 'to unleash the excellent talents of unique game creators all over the world' and 'setting creators free from the various shackles of game publishing, named from the intention of realizing publishing that is freedom of production without restraints.'"

Unties will be starting off with four games. The first is Tiny Metal, an Advance Wars-style title for PC, PlayStation 4, and Switch developed by Area35. Tiny Metal is the only title with a firm release date and it'll be published in Japan on November 21, 2017.

Last Standard is an action game by I From Japan. It's planned for PC and other platforms at a date to be determined.

Merkava Avalanche sees mobile robots fighting it out in a desert environment. WinterCrownWorks is working on the game for PC and it currently doesn't have a release date.

Finally, there's Deemo Reborn by Rayark. Deemo Reborn is a rhythm action game for PlayStation 4 with PlayStation VR support.

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Mike Williams

Reviews Editor

M.H. Williams is new to the journalism game, but he's been a gamer since the NES first graced American shores. Third-person action-adventure games are his personal poison: Uncharted, Infamous, and Assassin's Creed just to name a few. If you see him around a convention, he's not hard to spot: Black guy, glasses, and a tie.