Developer Divide by Zero's James Portnow has an opinion piece up at the source, providing a healthy examination of the video game industry as a whole, focusing on the differences and similarities between independent and major game companies, and how they help and hurt each other.

I hear a lot of bitching that innovation is dead in America. That’s a lie. The problem is that we have two industries at odds, neither of which is really equipped to present innovations to the masses.

First off, we have the indie community, which bewails its unrecognized genius and occasionally screams “sellout!” whenever someone in the community actually manages to make a hit.

Then we have the AAA industry, which often claims that it can’t take the kind of risks that innovation requires, given how expensive it is to make a AAA game -- and yet manages to make multi-million dollar flops all the time anyway.

There, nothing like an introduction which pisses off everybody! Guess you’re probably listening, though, which means we can talk.

chautemoc via gamasutra.com »