Valve, ID, 3DRealms, Bethesda, and Epic all have some things in common: less than 160 employees and private ownership.   EA and Firaxis suck.   So, why is it that almost all the good games come out of tiny, privately-owned studios?   The only exceptions are MicroProse and Blizzard, although Blizzard it did its best work (starcraft) back when it had less than 160 employees  (now it's a monster with 3000 employees and kind of lame).