We're not quite sure what to make of Sony's under-the-radar, Casual Connect announcement in Kiev last week. Sony Europe's developer relations manager George Bain told an audience of Eastern European devs that, following the de facto model already in place in Europe for the PlayStation 2 – it's "effectively an open platform ... you no longer have to submit a game for content approval" – developers "no longer need a publisher to distribute games on PlayStation Portable and PlayStation 3." He elaborated that "without the need of a licensed publisher it's a direct relationship between a developer and Sony."
Considering the audience – casual game developers in Eastern Europe – we're inclined to think this change won't have much of an impact on us, but Bain was quite clear that this wasn't a limited effort. In fact, there will be a new "global approval system" – instead of seeking approval through Sony Europe, Japan, and America, game ideas can be "sent through a single website." Modifying the traditional developer / publisher relationship? Sounds ambitious to us and could potentially open Sony's platforms up to an immense amount of smaller games. Perhaps more important is Sony's stance on the PS2 as an "open" platform – as long as it's still selling dev kits to developers, Sony's not going to stop them from making whatever game they want. So ... adult games confirmed?
