Have you been down to the Independent Games Festival pavilion yet?

JH: I have, yeah.

What have you liked down there? Not that it's any indication that you're going to sign them or anything.

JH: It was funny. I liked The Adventures of PB Winterbottom. It's funny, because those guys are in my class [at USC] right now, and they've been so timid about showing me their game, saying, "Well, you know, we're going to be up at IGF, so if you would..." -- and they call me Professor Hight, it's pretty funny -- "if you would stop by, we'd appreciate it."

And it's cool. It's a fun little game. I wouldn't say anything if that wasn't the case. In case they're listening, this does not necessarily mean that they're going to get an A in the class. (laughs) It's no guarantee. So I definitely like that. And it's interesting.

There are two goo games there. There's World of Goo and Goo, both of which I liked. The Goo game itself I think was a little more engaging for me, because it's fluid and organic, and it seemed a little bit easier to pick up and play. The Fez game was cool. I played that.

Gosh, I'm trying to remember. There's a lot of neat stuff, and it seems to be in general the quality level across the board is better than last year. Each year, it keeps getting a little bit better, and it's very encouraging.

I saw that too. It seemed like the level's coming up a little bit. I was especially impressed, just looking at the awards show last night, looking at the visuals of the Student Showcase games, because it was leaps and bounds. I felt bad that I hadn't played any of them. I was like, "Wow, these look amazing."

Here's a loaded question: What are you going to do to beat Microsoft in this space? And Nintendo as well, as they get into it.

JH: In terms of our objectives, we've already beat them, and I think we are vindicated in our strategy, because long before it seemed to be this popular cause to go after the indies for new content, we focused on that right off the bat.

We wanted innovation, we wanted stylish games, and we wanted things that were new and fresh and cool for our customers. We sought this space out two years ago, before we even launched the PlayStation Network.

I think it's very cool that all publishers are now considering this, because that's what it's all about. It's a low-risk area. It's a place where young people can come into the industry and try out their ideas and not have to go through the usual course of working through a big publisher as QA for the next five years.

Plus, they're getting a broad exposure to everything: producing, coding, sound, music, and putting it all together. It's much easier to learn working on it in a smaller game than it is to work in one part of a larger game.