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The PS Network and Indie Publishers: The Good, Bad, and Ugly
gamasutra.com — In this in-depth opinion piece, Gamasutra and Game Developer publisher Simon Carless takes a look at Sony's PlayStation Network for the PS3 - and the surprising positive and negatives of how it works for independent and third-party downloadable games.
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- truspect0r, on 05/10/2008, -51/+4FIRST!
- godseyeview, on 05/10/2008, -8/+1SECOND!!!
- truspector, on 05/10/2008, -3/+5THIRD!!!!!
- YoctoYotta, on 05/10/2008, -1/+7LAST =(
- soracross, on 05/11/2008, -0/+2HEART!
- truspector, on 05/10/2008, -3/+5THIRD!!!!!
- coresnake, on 05/10/2008, -2/+1Simpsons did it
- godseyeview, on 05/10/2008, -8/+1SECOND!!!
- Rfriaz, on 05/10/2008, -1/+29"Obviously, it's not possible to wholly condemn or praise Sony on the basis of some of this anecdotal information."
If everyone reads this line in the article the comment section should be 75% less stupid today.- Shadowgamers, on 05/10/2008, -0/+8Don't hold your breath
- Robbothehood, on 05/11/2008, -1/+1Whatever, the only comments I'm going to see are why everything in the article is a good thing. It isn't possible to judge Sony based on this anecdotal evidence, but the rate at which they are releasing games is pretty slow.
- Robbothehood, on 05/11/2008, -1/+0There are plenty of flash games alone that could be fleshed out with a little capital into a respectable game download. I don't know anything about the 360 Arcade releases and will remain cautiously optimistic about the WiiWare release rates but I don't think the PSN really needs a weekly update at the rate they're releasing content some weeks.
- Barnolde, on 05/10/2008, -2/+15It's interesting to get some insight on Sony and PSN. They've maintained quality over quantity and delivered for the most part; Everyday Shooter, SSHD, echochrome, PJM, flOw, etc.
Having to submit a game three times as opposed to XBLA's one time is a disadvantage though and probably means less games.
Though I like that the games have no size limit to workaround, are mostly 1080p and the prices aren't set by Sony, plus you can even share games. PSN is good stuff though, I'm glad there's a place for all the unique/weird games to go.- AzureRise, on 05/10/2008, -1/+3What do you mean share games?
- JakeyG14, on 05/10/2008, -0/+6You can give someone you trust your PSN ID and password which enables them to download whatever games you have paid for (excluding premium titles like Warhawk). You can "only" do it with five friends though, which means five in total, not a different five per game. Also, the when downloading a game to your PSP, that counts as a "friend" too.
- AzureRise, on 05/10/2008, -0/+3I'm guessing this isn't legit. But hey, if it works.
- JakeyG14, on 05/10/2008, -0/+3No, it is Sony approved, that's why games like Warhawk prohibit it, because they don't want their premium titles being shared but they don't care about the smaller downloadables.
- AzureRise, on 05/10/2008, -0/+3I'm guessing this isn't legit. But hey, if it works.
- brutalsponge, on 05/10/2008, -1/+0They already had a place. It's called the PC. Indie games are alive and kicking ass on the PC.
Roll on World of Goo!
- JakeyG14, on 05/10/2008, -0/+6You can give someone you trust your PSN ID and password which enables them to download whatever games you have paid for (excluding premium titles like Warhawk). You can "only" do it with five friends though, which means five in total, not a different five per game. Also, the when downloading a game to your PSP, that counts as a "friend" too.
- staticneuron, on 05/10/2008, -1/+3I could have sworn it was needed to have localization. How does MS handle that?
- directrix13, on 05/10/2008, -1/+3I ran nmap against my PS3 and didn't see SSHD running.
- thecheatah, on 05/10/2008, -0/+3lol
- AzureRise, on 05/10/2008, -1/+3What do you mean share games?
- sark666, on 05/10/2008, -1/+4I can't find much, how does a indie developer develop psn games? Is there a sdk? Do you need to install linux or something on a ps3? Can you develop on a pc? Test on a pc?
- popfrogs, on 05/10/2008, -0/+10I emailed the developer of Everyday Shooter before to ask him about that. He said Sony saw an early build of his game running on PC and were so impressed they loaned him a dev kit and supported him during development. Of course, this won't be the case for everyone. Sony has industry people that show up at demo contests, indie game developer conferences, etc. It's like the mafia; you don't find them, they'll find you if you're working on something they see value in. The trick is positioning yourself and your game(s) to get attention from them.
- pompeyjohn, on 05/10/2008, -1/+1I have heard that a setup for development/testing will set you back about 20k.
- Dracusis, on 05/12/2008, -0/+2RTFA
- popfrogs, on 05/10/2008, -0/+10I emailed the developer of Everyday Shooter before to ask him about that. He said Sony saw an early build of his game running on PC and were so impressed they loaned him a dev kit and supported him during development. Of course, this won't be the case for everyone. Sony has industry people that show up at demo contests, indie game developer conferences, etc. It's like the mafia; you don't find them, they'll find you if you're working on something they see value in. The trick is positioning yourself and your game(s) to get attention from them.
- CollapseControl, on 05/12/2008, -1/+2There is only one "Good" thing about PSN and it happens to be what the fanboys throw around like grenades, it's Free.
Besides that aspect there really isn't anything special about the PSN, it is a work in progress and one day it'll be up to par. I do like how you can download Resident Evil 2, although I don't know if that is available in the US or not.
Maybe when the PS network gets its act together i'll be able to convince some friends to get a PS3, but I don't see that happening within the next 2 or 3 years, lol.
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