If EA does takeover Take-Two, that won’t be a good thing. I think we’ll see a drop in quality in sports games and possibly in some other games as well. The big budgets for games will go to sequels and we’ll see less and less new ideas implemented in full-fledged retail games.

There is still hope. The Wii’s WiiWare channel, the 360’s XBLA, and the PS3’s PSN are all (or will be) great places for indie developers to start from. Developers who find success there may then be able to make more full-featured console games with minimal interference.  The boutique movie studios are making a lot of great Indies and getting them more exposure than ever. And let’s not forget that most of the major game studios, including EA, started out as small ones.

How did EA get so big in the first place? By making good games, and the major film studios are still around in large part for making successful movies. And EA and other major videogame developers are still taking risks. Boom Blox, Little Big Planet, Wii Fit, and Spore are all major releases coming up soon from major game studios. Each of them offers new ideas in gaming; none of them are sure-fit hits. Visionary directors such Martin Scorsese and Baz Luhrmann are still able to make their movies with major studio backing.

Things might get bad, boring, and bland for a while. Everything we see or play may have a '2' or '3' in it. But talented people who believe in themselves and their vision enough have often figured out how to get their grand ideas on the big screen or on a console. Look at Terry Gilliam’s Brazil as an example. Or how Robert Rodriguez has nearly avoided Hollywood altogether.  Eventually things will even out, and will finally get to see Peter Jackson’s the Hobbit, or play through Ken Levine’s (BioShock game designer) next immersive world.