Got to remember they're Sony's bitches, and in doing so they get all of Sony's middleware, developement kits, game engines, technical support and whatnot.

The long 3-year developement spans are heavily due to the fact that these companies didn't have the resources avaliable to develope for the consoles easily. Now that the game engines are made, developers are adjusting to the console they'll come down, along with the costs. They'll never be on the same scale as PS2 projects were, but they're definitely going down.

Well they are called Insomniac. Not that hard to figure out their secret. =P

 insomniac has one and a half teams.  a core resistance, a core ratchet, and the rest float between.  since they reuse the engine and only hire the best people, they can do a lot.  being able to hire exactly who u want is a huge deal.

Because it's Insomniac.

'Nuff said.

Its impressive stuff.

Although aided by Nintendo, Rareware has a pretty impressive n64 line up. They release solid to classic games every year...Insomniac did a good job this year...but they need to keep it up for a while before they hit Rare at thier peak. Until recently, all Insomniac have done is release a Spyro or Ratchet every year...nothing special IMO.

1996;
Killer Instinct Gold

1997;
Blast Corps
Diddy Kong Racing
Goldeneye

1998;
Banjo-Kazooie

1999;
Donkey Kong 64
Jet Force Gemini

2000;
Banjo-Tooie
Mickey's Speedway USA
Perfect Dark

2001;
Conker's Bad Fur Day

2002;
Starfox Adventures (moved from n64 to GC)

It's a lot easier when you lean more towards making sequels and can reuse previous engines and whatnot.

With two teams it's not that big of a deal, though if they do do everything they plan to in Resistance 2 in two years I will be impressed.

 120 smart and talented people will beat out 400 idiots. Just look at EA. HUGE dev staff and crap games.

 Actually Insomniac is over 170 employees now... still small for 1 AAA game per year.

The real answer is "Insomniac are GODS!". Love them :) 

well theyre probably are a big studio with alot of workers and they dont work on to many games