Sony Computer Entertainment chief Shuhei Yoshida says that the games industry must be supportive of independent digital game developers. "Without doing so, the whole industry will stall, in terms of innovation," he said.

Yoshida, who manages Sony's global in-house development studios, also claimed that the upcoming PlayStation Vita was designed to be developer-friendly. The new PlayStation Suite platform--announced early this year--will also enable PlayStation developers to port content to Google's Android OS.

Both initiatives seem to indicate that Sony is "putting their money where their mouth is," when it comes to supporting indie developers, especially when one takes into consideration the number of smaller studios it's been backing with regard to indie digital titles and PS Minis on the PlayStation Network.

"Having the capability to sell their games on the network is key to giving those smaller teams an opportunity to come up with ideas," explained Yoshida, "and sometimes invest their own money to come up with something special and have their projects meet with millions of users."

(via Develop)