Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

... because big corporations suck. They are beholden to stockholders and greed is the primary motivation, not creativity.

It's an age-old conflict, but money and creativity are like oil and water.

However, money is needed to sustain that creativity. Thoes small companies are also old. Long in the gaming tooth. had early successes and didn't get screwed out of their shirts. As such, they've been able to financially viably sustain themselves, and have hence continued to be creative.

The ability to release a game when its done (or to last long enough after the release to keep patching and sustaining the product with content and fixes) cant be underestimated. EA style business is incapable of this.

Why is 3DRealms in your list? The last game they actually made came out in 1996.

DN3D was a big step up from Doom II.

Plus, they popularized shareware.

All their developer work since 1997 has been on Duke Nukem Forever. We'll have to wait and see whether that's a great game.

committees have a way of multiplying negatives. What is the proverb about a A camel is a horse designed by a committee.