Opinion: PlayStation Network & Downloadable Games - The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly

[In this in-depth opinion piece we printed on Gamasutra yesterday, I take 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.]
Digital game downloads for consoles are in a fascinating position right now. We’ve previously discussed the state of console downloadable games - as well as a more detailed discussion of royalty rates for Xbox Live Arcade. But the state of PlayStation Network for indie games is significantly less-discussed - actually, for some potentially interesting reasons.
A starting point would be this interview with Sony’s Scott Steinberg conducted at GDC, discussing Microsoft’s announcement of Xbox Live Community Games. Steinberg’s response to that:
“I thought it was interesting in the sense that what they were talking about we’ve sort of been doing for the last couple of years with PSN and giving smaller, start-up, entrepreneurial developers […]

Original post by editors@gamesetwatch.com (Simon Carless) and software by Elliott Back