Swain knows a thing or two about indie developers as director of USC's Innovation Lab, which has turned out students like Jenova Chen and Kellee Santiago, who went on to build "FlOw" for the PlayStation Network, and Justin Hall, who built the passive multiplayer Internet game "PMOG."Forbes.com had a chance to catch up with Swain to discuss everything from how digital distribution will transform the games industry to whether the games business can learn from Hollywood.
Short interview, but the take on comparison between how the film industry works and how games are being made today is quite interesting, an excerpt:
Right now it is unheard of for a developer to own their intellectual property. There is no business reason why publishers should change that. It's directly analogous to the '50s or late '40s, when film studios employed the talent. That's exactly how the game studios work now. But if one of these guys gets this deal, than everyone wants this deal, and the house of cards starts to fall.
Shows how much this industry can still evolve...