Mark Cerny, the lead system architect for PlayStation, says he is "coming to the end" of his career and wants to "give back" by helping the next generation of game creators. Alongside The Game Awards host Geoff Keighley, he has launched The Nova Games Foundation, a charitable initiative that will award scholarships and provide industry support to emerging game developers.
In an interview with Game File, Cerny and Keighley said Nova will grant $100,000 annually to each of 20 young game designers. Select projects judged most promising may receive additional non-recoverable funding of up to $500,000. The foundation will also help match developers with publishers and assist with marketing, while explicitly not taking financial stakes in the projects; recipients will retain the freedom to choose their publisher and release platforms.
Applications for the program open in December for the 2026–2027 cohort. Nova has partnered with 13 educational institutions across eight countries, including New York University, the University of Southern California, Abertay University in Scotland, France’s Cnam-Enjmin, Germany’s TH Köln, and Australia’s Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.
I have always wanted to give back, but given my role in the industry, I never considered it appropriate to invest commercially in games. I have never owned stock in a game company or taken a financial stake in a game. Nova is charity: we do not take shares and do not expect to recoup the grants. The payoff we hope for is creative: to help new voices make games and find their footing. Mark and I have made multi-million dollar donations to establish the foundation, and intend to continue supporting it. We hope others will join us.
One of the first developers to sign on is Josef Fares, lead designer at Hazelight Studios and the creator of the cooperative hits It Takes Two and Splitfiction. Fares commented:
I am proud to support Nova, as the foundation gives the next generation of creators the freedom to explore their own imagination and, hopefully, bring unique ideas to life.
Cerny and Keighley are recruiting other prominent industry figures to participate; Keighley said "dozens of leading game directors" have already expressed interest. Cerny expects Nova to expand "over the next 10 or 20 years," and emphasized the difference in tools and training available to today’s graduates while noting the challenges they still face:
The industry has changed immeasurably since I started working in games in 1982. These graduates have talent, training, and tools that far surpass what we had then. But they face a tough road to establish themselves in the industry, and many would benefit from our support. We want to be there to provide it.
Cerny is credited with the architecture of the PS4, PS5, and PS5 Pro. His development career began at Atari, where he worked on Marble Madness; he later contributed to Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon, and served as game director on Astro Bot.