For years, video-game watchers have complained that there is no mainstream channel for independently produced games. Sure, you can hunt down great indie titles online, but until recently, the only way casual users could experience these hidden gems would be through a mainstream publisher picking them up for retail distribution.
Xbox Live Arcade and now the PlayStation 3’s (PS3) E-Distribution Initiative have shifted the industry mindset, with Microsoft and Sony actively courting the indie development scene.
Sony has gone one step further with PS3, allowing users to install alternative operating systems to start their own programming projects. At last year’s E3 event, Sony’s head of the software platform division, Izumi Kawanishi, openly invited bedroom coders to start producing games and other applications for PS3.
But this is also happening without their permission. For years there’s been a large homebrew development community, a determined band of coders who hack into the firmware of games consoles to seize control of the silicon and persuade the machine to run their own applications.
Homebrew is quietly being legitimised. Online communities like Dcemu.co.uk provide a hub of homebrew development, offering clear instructions and helpful forums to non-techie users wishing to run indie software on their consoles. The PlayStation Portable scene is the liveliest. There are hundreds of apps, from emulations of classic consoles and home computer games to text versions of the Bible and guitar tuition.
Hardware manufacturers are getting in on the act. United Kingdom company Datel recently released a Games ‘n’ Music for the Nintendo DS — just slot it in and you can run homebrew games and apps, as well as watch videos and play MP3s. It even comes with 25 homebrew games.
Even more accessibly, the flash game site Wiicade.com released an API allowing developers to support the motion-sensing capabilities of the Wiimote controller. Soon, then, Wii owners will be able to play independently produced titles that use the physical controls in entirely new ways, Or, just as likely, you’ll get 100 versions of Tetris that let you manipulate shapes by twisting your wrist. But hey, that still sounds like fun.
This is, of course, all part of the breakdown in digital barriers between the consumer and the content provider. In courting the MySpace generation, console manufacturers have had to loosen their obsessions with control and security. And it’s been liberating. Xbox Live Arcade is a success, and by embracing independent thought, Sony could turn round the PS3 naysayers. If indie gaming can do that, it can do anything. — Guardian Unlimited Â