now this is what i like reading! i loved the original xbox!

Agree. I want to see AA gaming back, indies just arent adequate. Their budgets are too small and often they're stuck in the 2D sprites era.

Very good read, Indie games are starting to become more and more popular. You don't need this AAA mega budget titles to make lots of cash. The industry needs a shake up and it'll be happening soon.

I wasn't aware the two were mutually exclusive. In fact, I kind of assumed that ideally the two went hand in hand. But then the guy said that losing money on hardware was "classic," so maybe he just doesn't understand how a first-party usually works?

That's interesting and extremely surprising in a country that is more or less built upon super-capitalist principals. It's a really good thing though, not entirely unlike the engine and tyre restrictions in F1 or the turbo restrictors and effect cap on moder rally cars. Caps like these forces you to move all the pieces forward in order to achieve success rather than relying on brute horsepower/outspending/overindulging on gaming budgets for ease, this could be just what the doctor ordered. It would be difficult to impose on an actual open, competitive market though; sports and business are very different arenas, but I still appreciate the principle behind it.

We will probably see a new hollywood type of phenomenon, with AAA studios bankrupting and AA coming back and inspiring new AAA with indies.

Well that part seems downright universal today. But the interviewee was around during the PS2 generation, so not only was the idea novel, but there was a 2-2 split on the matter.

The loss of licensed games is hurting the consoles a lot.. They would soften the money loss if a new IP didn't work.. Not only were those games made with lower budgets and good return of investment it also lost a lot of "casual" audience.. People are happy to play them on mobile were they even have a better return on investment.. We really should have had an Avengers/Dark Knight Rises/Inception etc videogame this last gen..

Companies don't want to take major risk anymore and I can't blame them. This is why we keep seeing rehash after rehash, this is the reason for CoD, AC, Halo, Mario, Gran Turismo Total War, and etc... These big corporations have executives that have to answer to shareholders and when games such as Puppeteer, Starhawk, W101, Lost Odyssey and others don't garner the proper sales it looks bad for the gaming division.

Companies no longer want to waste a good amount of resources on something that may or may not sell well.
We know Halo is gonna sell unit's, we know AC is gonna sell unites, we know Mario will sell and so on. So it's just much easier to stick with what you know is gonna be easy to market and has a history with consumers. Shooters are easier to market and sell to consumers than puzzle games or platformers(not named Mario).

Now were seeing the rise of indie games, low risk with a mid-high reward and we get to pay 60 dollars or 45(I think?) euro for a game we just played not to long ago.

Great idea but I'm not sure how you would put an international cap on game development budgets. Usually the market needs to sort itself out, especially when no one government can legislate to control it.