I read through this entire thread. All the plausible hypotheticals have been brought up.
I agree, there would be more than a few 3rd party developers going under. Good. Great. Excellent.
The fat needs to be trimmed in my opinion. Certain 3rd party developers such as id Software who have not developed a game since Doom 3 in 2004, just need to die. I don't care what you and Romero did in the 1990s, I don't want to listen to your 50th interview on how you guys created the FPS genre, and frankly, I would giggle a little inside if you guys went the way of Westwood Studios.
Studios like id Software in the West are equivalent to Yoshio Sakamoto in Japan. 10 to 20 years ago they were the bleeding edge, created huge hits, created sequels, created another round of sequels, 6 year development hiatus, and 6 years later they are releasing a new IP. Romero, Carmack and all of id Software are the old lions who need to bow out now with dignity and make way for the new lions or stay their ground and finish their career like Brett Favre.
Honestly, I want the latter. I want 3rd party studios like id Software to embarass themselves and go out like an old man comes out during sex. A whole lot of waiting and disappointing packages.
I am in the camp that if you look at the indie games on Xbox Live and PSN, there is far more talent there right now than in celebrated studios like id Software. Give these guys a chance because they are hungry, are just as talented, and demand a whole lot less in monetary compensation.
