Never in a Hundred Million Years Will You Ever Sell Your Game Idea to a Company

This is true if you're looking to build a typical console/PC game, but flash games and social gaming open up new possibilities for game creation and distribution, and therefore for success.

Playfish sold their games and game ideas to the tune of $300MM. Their games are great, really a cut above their peers, but in no universe did they take millions of dollars or three years to make.

And yes, they weren't "game ideas," but they also weren't "scaled down prototypes." Restaurant City is not a scaled down version of some massive, multi-million dollar console game.

Get three or four quality people together -- flash developer, illustrator, and (game) designer -- and you can have a Restaurant City in a month if you hustle.

Anyhow, here on HN I'm sure I'm preaching to the choir, but social gaming offers a new model for distribution more than anything else, so the idea that a game takes eighty people, three years, and $20MM to be successful is precisely the idea that needs to (and will) die.