Didn't need to read beyond this:
Those companies that put these products out? They’re for profit businesses. They exist to produce, market, and ship great games ultimately for one purpose. First, for money, then, for acclaim.
This is why gaming is going downhill, and is the reason most things go downhill. You have to love and respect what you do with a creative item or in the end you get trash. You're just going through the motions looking for your next paycheck or trying not to get fired.
Do you think that the people who made Aliens Colonial Marines when it was finished were sitting there going. "Wow. We made a great game didn't we? I can't wait to share this with the world!" No, it was probably more like, where's my check? One more paycheck, on to the next project.
Sadly, that is just how the world is now. They look at gaming as a commodity and how many sheep can we fleece, and not as entertainment. Not with an attitude of "I want to share what I've created with the world." There is no love. I'm sure the actual game makers try....but, it's really not their call at the end of the day. It's the suits call. He also mentions having to answer to stockholders. If he recognizes that as an issue, that tells you something right there.
The other issue is thinking just because you made it, that it is great. It's not for YOU to decide if it's great. It's up to the consumer. Review blackouts? That should be illegal plain and simple. He mentions capitol markets alot, and that really says where he is coming from. He's not there to make games, he's just there to make money. This theme obviously comes up repeatedly over the recent years. Charge as much as we can for as little content as we can and get away with it. Since there is no thing as refunds, we can deceive the customer into buying said product. It's been proven time and again, good games sell, regardless of price.
Until companies understand this (which they never will at that level) things will continue to go downhill.
He gets pissy about Valve, but I don't think anyone thinks Valve is flawless, they just haven't released any games that were obviously souless money grabs like EA (and other companies) has.
To produce a high quality game it takes tens of millions of dollars, and when you add in marketing that can get up to 100+ million.
Wrong. It takes YOU that kind of money. It doesn't take that much money to make a GOOD game. It can if you let it, and if you do it right, you might have a phenominal game, or a crap game, in the end, when you look at the finished product, you probably know which catagory it falls into. If it's trash, you shouldn't even release it. (Look at all the projects Blizzard dumped over the years).