Game development for PlayStation®4 and PlayStation®5 consoles

Due to licensing restrictions, access to Defold versions with support for development on PS4 and PS5 is not included in the standard version of Defold. In order to get access to versions of Defold with PS4 and PS5 game development support you need to be registered as a licensed PS4 and PS5 game developer respectively.

Registering as developer for PS4 and PS5 game development

You can register as a game developer for PS4™ and PS5™ game development from the PlayStation™ Partners page

When you have been approved by Sony you will get access to the Playstation 5 DevNet and/or Playstation 4 DevNet. Navigate to Development > Tools & Middleware > Tools & Middleware directory > Defold. Click the ‘Confirm Status’ button.

PS4™ and PS5™ access in Defold

Once we have received confirmation of your status as a licensed developer for PS4™ and PS5™ we will provide you with access to the following:

• Source code access to the PS4™ and PS5™ extension with console specific API integrations.
• Source code access to the PS4™ and PS5™ enabled version of the Defold game engine will only be provided to PS5™ licensed game developers. Note that the source code access is not required to build games, but we provide access in case you wish to make source contributions to the engine core.
• Command line tool with support for bundling to the PS4™ and PS5™ platforms. Bundling from the Defold editor is not supported.
• Forum where you are able to get PS4™ and PS5™ specific support.

FAQ

Q: Do I need to install additional tools to build for consoles?

A: You will be able to create application bundles from the command line tools. Information about how to test on PlayStation®4, PlayStation®5 and Nintendo Switch hardware will be provided to you when you are given access to the respective platforms.

Q: Is it still easy to use a single code base if I decide to also target consoles?

A: Yes, all of the standard Defold API functions are available also for the console platforms. In addition to the standard functionality you will also have access to a couple of PlayStation®4, PlayStation®5 and Nintendo Switch specific functions, but in general the code should be able to remain exactly the same across multiple platforms.