14 DAY TRIAL // The creator of popular independent title Braid, Jonathan Blow, recently talked about Microsoft and Sony, and how the two corporations are supporting indie games through the online services of their own consoles, the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, respectively.
According to Blow, while Microsoft makes it easier for indie developers to publish their titles on the Xbox Live Arcade, Sony is more willing to take risks and experiment with the games they publish on the PlayStation Network.
"Microsoft has provided the lower barrier to entry with Xbox Live Indie Games, but most of them are not very good - I don't think that's a controversial statement," said Blow.
"So if you're thinking about the impact of indie games on the whole forum of games then probably Sony has done more because of the way they curate the games they put on there - they're actually looking for games that are artful or experimental."
"XBLA is more conservative than PSN but it still has a larger audience so it's much more commercially feasible, as long as you can get your game noticed - which is getting harder over time, but is still possible," Blow continued.
In the end, the creator of Braid revealed that the Xbox Live Arcade "is part of a bureaucratic machine, which is part of a bigger bureaucratic machine and so on - what more can they do?"
Blow revealed Braid back in August of 2009 on the Xbox Live Arcade, and won over many gamers through its time-shifting puzzles and ambiguous story.
The title was then brought over to other platforms, including the PlayStation 3 and the PC.
The developer is now getting ready to release a new title, The Witness, for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, next year, but still hasn't figured how it will promote it, as the business climate for indie developers is still unstable.