(05-23-2013, 01:29 AM)MaJoR Wrote: Wrongo. The Playstation Store is now reaching out to devs (literally, they are calling devs) to get games onto the playstation ecosystem. The PS3, Vita, and PS4 are very indie friendly now. The Wii U has phenomenal indie development, which has recieved tremendous praise as being as good as steam, but on a console. Xbox? The Xbox 360 has gotten worse, not better. The Xbox Live Arcade is a ghost town, and developers have been left with a terrible taste in their mouths. And the XNA program has been cancelled, with no replacement forthcoming. And there is zero word about the Xbox One and Indies, though the Xbox One reveal barely mentioned games at all, so...
That's a bit misinformed, to say the least. Only up until very recently (like the past few months really) has the indie scene started to improve on Playstation platforms. The Vita no longer carries a mobile development fee and the PS4 will be indie friendly when it comes out (remember, it isn't out now, so it's not really an option). Getting an indie game on the PS3 was a needlessly complex and expensive process, which is why Sony is just now making an effort to show how different the Vita and PS4 will eventually be for indie games. They're making changes, but it's still a mess until those changes are enacted.
As it stands currently though (for consoles that are available) XBLA is fairly simple to get up and go for indie development, even though a lot of people are abandoning it. The Wii U and 3DS are far easier on indie devs than the Wii or DS were, but in terms of accessibility, it's still quite a bit of work to get yourself set to make games. Add in the cost of obtaining the development tools (most likely greater than the $99 Xbox Live Indie dev yearly membership). In terms of cost and ease of access, XBLA had it right, for a time at least. The Vita just became (imo) the best choice for indie development on hardware available today. Sure other companies allowed indie development, but MS threw you the least amount of hurdles to jump through. Permitting indie games on a system isn't enough; you have to make it simple without costing too much. MS hasn't said a word on indie development on the Xbox One, which is quite unfortunate.