Gamasutra has a comprehensive interview with 3D Realms' Scott Miller, speaking on a broad range of topics relating to modern game development. Miller touches on 3D Realms' unique practice of partnering with smaller studios for IP creation, why he's not on board with Steam and episodic content, the importance of game-specific IP, and why developing for consoles is important these days. Despite his misgivings about Steam, Miller does see digital delivery as a crucial upcoming trend both on PC and consoles.

IÂ’d love to see Steam spin off as their own company. That would be a smart move. That removes the conflict of interest issue and it would give Steam focus as a separate company. Since theyÂ’re buried in Valve, if Valve doesnÂ’t do well for a game or two, Steam will get cut before their internal game development. They have to consider Steam secondary. I donÂ’t know why they hang on to Steam as an internal thing. TheyÂ’d probably rule the game industry if they did. A truly independent company is going to come along, and I know of a couple of start-ups. I think one of these companies will emerge as the product leader and they should be able to take SteamÂ’s spot.

My overall impression is that digital distribution is definitely going to be a huge force in the future. I’ve said for quite a while that the next generation consoles will have this built in from the start. Day one releases will be available online. I think brick and mortar places will lose a lot of business this way. Microsoft and Sony have to be saying “if we cut out the retailers, we get a bigger piece of the pie.” There’s no issue with it, you just need to get people bigger hard drives. Digital delivery is going to be a key part of console revenue.