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Forget Innovation From The Indies
spidweb writes "RPGVault has an article from a long-time indie game author about how people who want innovation in games shouldn't look to the small developers. It is his view that innovation in games will come from big companies, if at all. From the article: 'Indie developers have a real purpose in this world. They make little niche products for markets too small for Activision. They make many new puzzle games for the casual audience. Or, at least, the same old puzzle game again and again. They rewrite Asteroids... because someone has to.'"
Companies don't set out to innovate. If that process worked then the best way to come up with new ideas would be to close your eyes really hard and try to "think original". If you have enough minds in the room then a few of them will be thinking of something new, and a few of those will have the drive to actually do it. When someone gets a new, strange, and risky idea and decides to implement it themselves, and when that person succeeds, then you get an "innovative developer" (coming as a side-effect not from intent).
The advantages that big companies have are leverage and resources. The drawback they live with is that they have to plan more carefully to keep the organization moving forward productively. This leads them to take safer bets and often stifle the "wild ideas". Small companies will take more risks. The ability of small companies to fill a niche and to react quickly are their main competitive advantages. This means that, other things equal, the public will see more innovation coming from small organizations than large ones.