It works well enough for the "small guys" -- I know we've been pretty happy with Witcher's performance on Steam. I do agree that there's a conflict of interest there, but that's the case with almost every digital distribution outlet around.

As for the rates, I think Randy's also overstating things. Steam probably has fairly high overhead -- I can only imagine their bandwidth bills -- and while I'm sure they're making a lot of money, you can't really expect them to run their business at a totally minimal return.

It's a no-brainer, sure. But if the ESRB is going to charge iPhone developers the same rates it charges for ratings on console and PC titles, and if the ratings process is as complex as it is for those titles, this would totally stifle the market. Sure there are a lot of crappy games on the iPhone platform, but the community aspect is probably the best thing about it. And spending money and time to get games out the door is not going to help with that.