It used to be that anyone with a dream and $99 could develop a PlayStation Vita game through the PlayStation Mobile development program. Now, all you need is the dream.

Sony is waiving the $99 publisher licensing fee for PlayStation Mobile as of today, meaning anyone can download the free SDK and start developing a game that will appear on the PlayStation Vita. PlayStation Mobile games can also run on other PlayStation Certified mobile devices, including the button-sporting Xperia Play Android phone and certain Sony tablets.

Games developed through PlayStation Mobile still have to be approved by Sony before being published on the store, but any game that doesn't contain objectionable content should make it through. Developers don't get to set their own end-user price for PS Mobile titles, though. Instead, they sell the game wholesale to Sony, which then turns around and resells the downloadable game at a slight profit through its store.

Dropping the fee should make PlayStation Mobile a bit more attractive to indie developers than alternatives like the iOS App Store, Microsoft's XNA development environment (used in Xbox 360 Indie Games), and Steam Greenlight. All of those outlets charge a fee of about $100 for new developers (recurring annually in Apple's case). In fact, distributing a game through PlayStation Mobile is even cheaper than paying the $25 registration fee to get on the Google Play store.

It's no surprise that Sony is doing everything it can to attract more developers to its portable. Sony has sold about five million Vita units worldwide, according to analyst estimates, a sales stall that has fallen well below Sony's expectations. (Not to mention, there are roughly 30 million 3DS units out there.) Opening the system up even further to independent developers could help expand a mobile-phone style long tail market for Vita games while improving the system's reputation for software selection.

The announcement comes a day after Sony introduced a new Indie Game category on the PlayStation Store, giving additional visibility to independent efforts available on both the Vita and the PS3. Recent rumors point to Nintendo planning a similar outreach to mobile indie developers for its struggling Wii U. The Japan Times even reported on a new program that will offer conversion software that allows mobile game developers to easily port their games to Nintendo's new console.