From time to time, I like to read Game * Design * Art * Culture, which is Greg Costikyan's blog on game design. Recently, he gave a talk at GDC on Greg the State of the Industry, which hits the mark on so many different levels. He makes some very good points, and he calls for a revolution in game development, to change the model of the games industry. I think that the industry is moving towards this revolution, mostly with small studios, smaller productions, smaller or alternative platforms. The biggest problem with going independent is distribution , but companies like Valve has shown that internet distribution can work. With any luck, other development houses can follow their example. It really is to the benefit of the development house to cut the publisher out of the picture, but the development houses that can do this are few and far between, and any that are well funded enough to do this, are often bought out before they have a chance to experiment with alternative modes of publishing. I assume this is why any development house that can generate a massive following is suddenly targeted for a buyout. The consolidation of publishers is an danger to the games industry too -- as it stands now,a handful of companies control which games get to the gamer.
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