Firstly, this is just my opinion, but with the recent rumours that Factor5 could now be in bother, surely we must now see smaller scale, cheaper games for the next few years from some of the smaller studios?

This generation along with the recession is not helping game studios especially the ones that aren't backed by Sony/Nintendo/Microsoft and they need to make ends meet, so what can they do?

Well rather than spending 2 years and 60 personnel along with 10's of millions to produce a make or break blockbuster, why don't the smaller studio's make smaller bite-sized games...look at GT5P and Siren, both game were around the £20 (in the UK) and in the case of Siren, didn't cost much to make and has more of a chance of making much more money.  By following this process, companies could release 2 games a year at £20 rather than 1 game every 1.5-2 years at £50.

I really do think that we will start seeing this, along with more games on the XBLive and PSN again smaller and cheaper.

What are you thoughts?

As a gamer I want games that are like Crysis, Halo, Burnout etc, but these types of games take a long time to make.  they take longer to go though the testing phase to find bugs and so fourth....   As long as these companys are making a profit on them, they will continue to make games that take years to develope.

I love cheap games but most are short, but saying that I bought Zeno Clash last month on steam and that game is really good in everything (graphics, gameplay, value for money, replay value) but zeno clash is a short game you can finish in a few hours.

Going back to your point about GT5P, GT5P is no budget game and is not even a full game but a gloryfied demo.  I belive to myself that their release GT5P to make some quick money to contiue development of this game.

Gamers are not stupid and we won't buy any old rubbish just because its cheap

I think GTP5 and Siren are more like testing beds for new distrubution methods and markets. Just to see what the market will and won't buy without ticking off retailers to bad.

What I have notice is that a lot of newer companies that have come into existence recently are doing more smaller games to start off with. I think this makes them immediate capital and shows potential to venture capital investors that they can be profitable. And since IPhone games are the rage now a days.

Funny how the IPhone has bought the rage of mobile phone games to the states. Japan has been doing this for the last few years...