The problem I have here is that there's now an arbitrary distinction between games from big companies and games from 'indies', where the former can get on, no matter how awful (diner dash clones, crap tower defence games, etc), while latter have to win a simple popularity contest to get onto the service. A popularity contest of games that, for the most part, no one has played!
It's demeaning and it creates an indie games ghetto. It seems like this could have the effect of making it much more difficult for a Binding of Isaac or a Dungeons of Dredmor to succeed, games which were put on an equal footing with everything else on the service and got good word of mouth only after people played them.
It reminds me very much of the disaster area that is Xbox Live Indie Games. The $100 fee won't make much difference. Hopefully it'll result in a boost to more indie-focused competitors like Desura or GOG.
Had a bit of a bit about this earlier. It's sad to see any studio close, especially one with a tenure like Psygnosis, but it's especially biting considering their particular legacy. Psygnosis were a studio that made games very much synonymous with the Playstation brand in Europe early on, and it was Wipeout that Sony demoed in nightclubs to directly appeal to the 18+ demographic. Not only did they lend credence to Sony as a console manufacturer early on (as in "I don't think they'd be were they are today without some of those games), but they were a large part of pushing gaming into the mainstream in Europe and making it socially acceptable for adults. "Sad day for the game industry" doesn't do it justice.
This was exactly what I was going to say. They were THE key PS developer in Europe, early on, at least. Without their games, which had a very specific identity to them, Sony probably wouldn't have been able to succesfully pitch to the mass-market 18-35 crowd of the era as they did so brilliantly, they wouldn't have destroyed Sega and Nintendo, and the games industry would be completely different. They convinced people that playing videogames was a viable alternative to going to nightclubs and taking drugs and having sex!
Wipeout, for a long time, was Sony's Mario or Sonic (at least in UK and Europe), so strongly was it identified with the PlayStation and what it represented.
Also, the vast majority of what they released on PS1 was amazing, and often very ahead of its time. Sad.
2 had some really dark subplots, the player's character is an out and out psychopath. I think The Third lacked that, somewhat, instead going for all out lunacy. Also, Johnny Gat is hardly in The Third. This series is all about the Gat!
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