I was just reading this article, an interview with Christopher Kline. The article reads that there is "Not a lot of hope" for mid-budget developers due to rising dev costs, etc.

I call bullshit.

Look at Stalker. That company was, for 90% of it's existence, made by about a dozen people working slave wages. The game won shooter of the year all over the place, and it's known all over the place -- people I know who barely game at all are talking about it. It has the best A.I. I've seen in an FPS (which isn't saying a lot, but still).

I'm really sick of this idea that games need the latest and greatest to be successful. You don't have to sell 2 million copies of a game if it only costs you 2 million to make! So here's a crazy idea, stop spending 30 million dollars to sell 1.5 million copies, when you could spend 3 million and sell 750,000. Not every game has to be Game Of The Year. You can make a great cult title every two years and make a damn good profit.

I think this industry needs to stop pretending to be the Movie industry and get their shit straight. Make games people enjoy. That should be your focus. Fun; remember fun? Fun does not require bloom, bump mapping, detailed water effects, real-time lighting effects that show you each fucking leaf moving in the wind.

Give me a game that focuses on good controls, fun gameplay, and I'll be set.