If it were a Sony mandate, Sidhe wouldn't have been allowed to price Shatter so well in Aus/NZ. Game prices are set by publishers, so if the sale price of Brothers is really as pathetic as the one listed, the blame should mostly be directed at 505 Games.
Not that Sony's free from any criticism, it's just that blaming only them is a ridiculous simplification of what is a widespread policy within the games industry (fucking us over).
Why would the publishers purposely have the same prices set for all games on PSN differently than their same game on XBL? Sony must have mandated price points, where the publisher gets to choose from $16 or $20 for example, not set the exact amount that they wish. (On Xbox, it is usually $5, $10 and $15. Sony have something like $7.35, $13.45, $18 and $21.95 or something like that, so the developer can either go under the XBL price ($13.45) or over (in this case $21.95).
Something just doesn't add up. Most DLCs and games that are $5 on XBL are $7.35 on PSN, so they must have mandated price points on both XBL and PSN.
I'm interested in the Mass Effect games, do they run and look as good as on Xbox 360 or are the PS3 versions worse?
Already said on the previous page.
Mass Effect 1 on PS3 has less performance issues that plagued the 360 version. It is better.
ME2 on PS3 uses the ME3 engine whereas the 360 version of ME2 uses the, you guessed it, ME2 engine. 3>2 and ME2 PS3 > ME2 360. Also has an extra intro comic on PS3, so definitely get the PS3 version (better lighting from memory as well being a key advantage).