Well I'll respond. I found your arguments persuasive and your view of the industry consistent with what I do know.
I agree completely that high development costs not only threaten the industry but discourage innovation and risk taking. It's just like what happened when Broadway became a fantastically expensive place to produce plays. It went from new plays and became a place that lives on revivals of old but proven safe material.
Risk taking in video games is inversely proportional to the cost of development. In major HD releases we see basically prettier version of rehashed games. Think how many games have a number in their name; GTA 4, MGS4, Halo 3. And even “new” ips without a number following their name tend to stick pretty close to proven genres and style. Little Big Planet was an exception and unfortunately its sales may not encourage others to follow. But costs are so high that almost every major game becomes a bet-the-ranch proposition. You stick to games that have already proven themselves.
Games for the Wii and the DS are comparatively inexpensive to develop so that companies can take more chances on new ideas. Some of them have flopped and a few, most noticeably Wii Fit have hit homeruns and changed the industry forever.
Wii Ware (and the competitive games on the Xbox, and PS3) are a bargain for both the developer and the purchaser so they are not afraid to try some daring and even wacky new ideas and we are afraid to give them a try for $10 or so.
So if the HD consoles seem to have so many highly rated games, it is in part because they are only producing games that they already know will be popular, with gamers and reviewers. Halo 3 was a very safe bet.
The Wii may not get as many guaranteed triple AAA rated hits, but it does get a lot more fresh and outside the box ideas; The Blob, Wii Fit, Raving Rabbits, Boom Blox, Wii Music and many others.
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