Virtually everything cited in this thread boils down to simple economics. The production costs for "AAA" titles have skyrocketed, driven by consumer demand for more content and better graphics. The game industry has the economics of the blockbuster-driven entertainment industry—massive capital expenditure in the hopes of eking out some kind of a profit, with flops easily leading to financial ruin. This is in contrast to the tech industry, which yields enormous profits on very little investment. Unlike Blizzard, Google doesn't need an army of artists to keep dollars coming out of the AdWords faucet.

I have a hard time understanding anger directed at game studios for doing what they need to do to survive. It's one of the toughest tech-related industries there is.