You are obviously against the free market, capitalism, consumer choice and low prices.
Publishers are greedy.

However, consoles aren't the only platform that is keeping AAA games alive, the PC has it's AAA exclusives and they are selling extremely well.
And there is no balance of retail and digital to contend with.

Blizzard, Valve, Bohemia, BlueByte have done extremely well over the years targeting the PC demographic, with WoW being the most profitable game ever made, the bulk of sales from those companies are from the PC.
StarCitizen, completely funded by PC gamers, almost $50 million raised.
IronClad, Firaxis have also done really well.

Consoles aren't needed for success, smart business decisions and pro-consumer practices are.

We will probably never agree on this.
But I am all for a completely free market without price fixing and with capitalism in full effect for more consumer choice, lower prices and more convenience.
My money is worth more to me than to a company like EA in my opinion.

Besides, something like Call of Duty Ghosts hardened edition was $150 here, in the US it's $120.
Even when our dollar was 20% higher we were still paying 30-50% more per game and you think I should support the publishers? Brick and Mortar? No way.
Adobe is another good example, it's cheaper for me to fly over to the United States to buy Adobe suite and fly back to Australia than it is to buy it locally in Australia.

Our government has told us to shop around oversease, by-passing local retailers because of it. (I buy most of my console games from the UK, it's cheaper and PAL compatible.)

I can't wait for us to move away from the AAA model. I want to see experimental stuff, unique ideas, trial and error etc.

Look at the types of games released in the PS1 days, then look at the PS2 days, there was still great variety, lots of chancer games but nowhere near as varied as the ideas being thrown around with the PS1. Come the 360/PS3 era, it had got to the point where nobody dared take risks, all focus was on technological prowess and appealing to the widest demographic possible,

It looks like the industry is starting to correct itself again. I hope Sony can pull off the whole having the broad content of the PS1 days.

The hardware is good enough now, any game should look good enough even with a modest budget. Lets start seeing more cheaper projects which don't need to be such huge hits to break even and get all experimental again.

Heavy Rain was bankrolled by a publisher and thus is no longer an indie game.

Indie only isn't the way to go though. I don't mind playing an indie title once and awhile, but it's not something I want to do every day.

I think there is a gross misunderstanding of what "indie" actually means.

Half Life is an indie game. Valve are technically the biggest indie developer in gaming.

Holy crap Wright, do you believe what you're typing. Game was being announced by Sony in 2006 and didn't release until 2010. They bankrolled it.

The game was built from beginning to end with the money from the developer itself. It was only after the game was finished that it got bankrolled for publishing and marketing. Hence why I keep thinking that the game is still indie.

AAA games can be great but i haven't much liked the way the market been going.I like games that are different i miss all those weird but enjoyable rpgs platformers and others. If this increase of indie can recreate some of that newness and creativity i won't mind one bit.

Your taking this belief on a statement where Cage implied this? I saw your post and I wouldn't assume half as much as you did. Even if you believe Heavy Rain paid for its development on all Quantic Dream's own. The majority of the costs to produce and deliver the game were paid for by Sony.  That is, if we follow your belief that Sony only started writing checks after the game was finished.

I believe that they were shopping our their idea and game with the tech demo they made to various publishers and Sony was the one that took them up on it (hence its unveil at E3 2006 at Sony's conference). 

Also, I sorry for my tone. Rough day at work and they came out meaner than I expected.

I have to check sources and I'm a bit tired now, so we might continue this discussion later, better. Also, don't worry. We've all had rough days at work.

And you get bonus for giving me that source. Have you seen the writer's mugshot?

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.