Imo, pricing model killed the middle of gaming. Which is why I'm pleased we're seeing a return to $40/$20 for certain retail releases like Sly Cooper; Ratchet & Clank etc., and some HD Collections.

It's a real shame though. Most of my favourite franchises are from "the middle"; and indies just aren't replacing 3D character platformers or futuristic arcade racers at the moment.

He'd know a lot more about the economics of game development - and thus what precipitated what - than I would, but it seems to me that it was the other way around. Publishers insisted on selling pretty much every game at $60 for a good chunk of this generation, and consequently everything is expected to be AAA in terms of production value. The death of the AA/B game seems to have led to the rise of indies as consumers look to satisfy their desires for things that aren't brown and grey military shooters or M-rated grimdark gorefests.

I was under the impression that the B games simply migrated to the handhelds.

What are your favorite franchises? 

I think indie games just accelerated the process. Like Kresnik mentioned, with the pricing model we currently have, B-games would eventually be lost completely without indie games.

It's a shame that B games have become a rarity nowadays, while I do enjoy myself both indie and AAA games, it's sometimes nice to see stuff in the middle.

Definitely.  Publishers were selling short, lower quality games for the same price as high-quality titles with stellar reviews.  How does that even make sense?

I think they were stuck in the past, in a time when kids bought games based on how cool the box art was.  We didn't know anything except the description written on the box and whatever hand-picked quote they plastered on the front.  Now, we know roughly how good a game is going to be before it even gets released.

The industry killed the middle by sending those games out to die.

WipEout; SSX; Ratchet & Clank; Jak & Daxter; Final Fantasy; Metal Gear Solid; Wild ARMs; Pikmin.

Only two of those franchises I would say are "healthy" at the moment.

WipEout & SSX certainly seemed to have died out in the past few years thanks to lacklustre sales that would've been fine in the sixth gen but aren't fine anymore.

Ratchet seems to be going under; Jak & Wild ARMs haven't been given a chance this gen and Pikmin has been revived after an 8 year absence to pretty average sales.

Final Fantasy & Metal Gear Solid are the only real "AAA" franchises; everything else is b-tier and - for the most part - is struggling to find a place in the market.

Indies are over saturating the market. There just isn't room for all these games to be successful.

There's always going to be b games and indie games. I don't think they killed them,there just being overlooked to a certain extent.

Depends. 

Facebook and smartphones games (which are technically indie) are all over the place and there is indeed a saturation there. But indie games that are more "gamers" oriented (Minecraft, Bastion, Braid, etc), are not really on the saturation point yet.

One could also argue that there is no room to be successful in the AAA industry, but saturation is not the problem there.