Gamasutra recently interviewed John Hight, who is heading up the PS3's E-distribution project, getting a few interesting tidbits about Sony's online service along the way. Advantages of E-distribution? Selling online makes it simpler to go international, to niche and remote markets. Also, inventory no longer comes as a risk since there are no physical units being carted around (this also lowers the stacks of used games sitting at our favorite stores -- everyone knows how many copies of Madden 20xx there are when the new Madden 20xx +1 rendition appears). Another advantage that always gets mentioned -- "This new form of distribution will lower the barriers of entry for new developers. We can try out new ideas in a low risk, quick feedback environment." Hooray, mom and pop joints! Now if only they were getting the dev-kits on time like the bigger companies...What kind of titles can we expect to be distributed via this E-contraption? "We fund development for 1st party games and we are open to self-funded games." So many of Sony's internal studio games will come to the new console this way, if the E-distribution system works properly. If they don't sell well, hopefully they'll take a note from XBox Live and let any third-party into the ... party.
Want to design a game and have it distributed via Sony's new system? Hight demands that we: "Create a high concept or, better yet, build a working prototype of [your] game. Then register on our developer website www.playstation.com/beyond." While the submission site isn't exactly brand spankin' new, it does imply that some games (possibly our submissions) may be set up to download as a subscription or a one-time purchase. Should Sony really go the subscription route? How about for small developers using their E-distribution? Hopefully it will be a "subscribe" or "purchase" option for each ... kind of like a rental, then a purchase, for the cautious among us.
