Best bet is with Minis program -- playable on PSP and PS3. The PS2 seems to be finally dying in the West (it's still calling all shots in the developing world, but with piracy that doesn't really matter.)
I hear PyTom has his own software company? But Sony is anal like Nintendo in that you need to have a real office for development (home offices don't count). In any case, the cost of entry is around 1200 Euros and a lot of small European and even an Indian studio took advantage of the opportunity to make small arcade games. The only disadvantage I see is with the 100mb size limit, which is really tricky to achieve for a full length visual novel with high quality art assets.
https://www.tpr.scee.net/AreaNewLicense ... 20LICENSEE
In any case, somebody's got to be the gatekeeper since closed platforms don't accept just anything. Ideally it would be the entity (company/person) who owns the devkit and goes through the submission process on behalf of the client developers.
I still believe the PC/Mac/Linux platform is superior in accessibility. It's just that it's like the iphone now in that there's too many choices floating around
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Tail
It also turns out that with the advent of digital distribution, people tend to gravitate towards familiar, comfortable choices due to the sheer amount of offerings nowadays. As a result, the current market is more hit-driven then ever, unless you manage to corner a specific hardcore niche. Bestsellers become further entrenched as bestsellers because they are listed on the front page, etc. And it's not necessarily because the rest are crap... because those who consume the long tail works tend to be well-read and well-versed in the medium. For example, the average person who reads an OELVN would have read Tsukihime or Narcissu or Higurashi, so his bar would have already been set high. While the first-time visual novel reader would go for hits like Fate Stay Night and be blown away by the first exposure.