So here's how it works. There are over 40 publishers and manufacturers around the world which help developers get their games to the public, and for a long time, this has been a mutually beneficial relationship.

The problem at the moment though, is that GameStop, one of the world's largest game retailers just reported that last year, 65 percent of their sales came from just four publishers, and guess who they are: Nintendo (21%), Sony (17%), Microsoft (16%) and EA (11%).

This is similar in some ways to the current music industry problem whereby "The Big Four" record companies control much of the industry. This is all very dangerous because, for one, it diminishes the capacity for a multiplicity of voices in the industry, which basically leads to less possibilities, and overall, a less healthy industry overall, also resulting in a lack of variety in experiences for the gamer (theoretically). Two, it becomes harder for new development teams to get their games published because the majority of the industry runs through these four companies, which means they only have so much time and money to spend, and they're probably going to be less willing to spend it on "innovative" games and/or new developers. Not good, not good at all. And with sales up 33 percent, the situation may only be perpetuated.

It's also an unhealthy time for retailers, as GameStop receives significantly more copies of games than do other retailers. Said the company:

 "Due to our strong relationships with the manufacturers of these platforms, we often receive disproportionately large allocations of new release hardware products."

So what's the solution? Well, like with the music industry, we could shift our support to force change, and let the publishers know why we're doing so, thereby opening up the industry more to more publishers, and smaller ones. Just an idea.