Detroit: Become Human, Heavy Rain Dev Is Now Independent, Will "Provide Investment" To Other Developers

In a retrospective cataloguing its achievements over its 23-year history, Heavy Rain and Detroit: Become Human developer Quantic Dream has revealed its plans to become entirely independent and shift towards self-publishing.

The studio has been defined in the most recent generations as a partner to Sony, developing PlayStation exclusives across both the PS2 and PS3. More recently, many of Quantic Dreams' games have started appearing on PC, as the studio moves towards publishing its own games and empowering other developers to approach it for publishing needs.

"This new venture will allow us to make decisions in total independence, and to address the technological and strategic opportunities of next-generation platforms," the press release reads. "It will also allow us to help other developers, by providing investment and development support, so that they can fully express their talents. We want to support creators of original projects and help them, in turn, to achieve their vision and offer quality, ground-breaking experiences."

Quantic Dream hasn't detailed any future projects yet, having just ported a number of its games to the Epic Games Store, including Detroit: Become Human, Beyond: Two Souls, and Heavy Rain. Its independence means that any future titles will likely not be exclusive to any platform too, leaving the door open to Quantic Dream publishing games for Xbox for the first time since the original Xbox.

Quantic Dreams' games have been defined by their heavy narrative focus and sometimes cumbersome controls. In our 7/10 review of Detroit: Become Human, critic Peter Brown said, "Detroit is well worth playing, but it struggles to strike the right balance between giving you freedom of choice and reminding you that it's all a game in the end."