The wildcard that could help change indie games' visibility: The explosive growth of mobile gaming. Apple's iTunes App store currently makes it easy for indie game makers to distribute their creations. (Google's Android platform will likely do the same when it launches later this month.)

Roberts agrees. "The iTunes App Store will become an aggregator for gaming content. The iPhone is too good a platform for that not to happen. And just because of the economics, it's going to be smaller companies. Portable platforms have had more indie style content [for years]. But portable platforms have never had installed bases as large as now--10 million for Nintendo DS, and iPhone/iPod Touch will be there, too. That creates a large audience for these products."

Big name gaming isn't going to go away anytime soon: That's how the mainstream gaming content will be funded and marketed. However, as game makers become more savvy--and audiences become more aware of alternatives to the big-ticket items, you may yet see more game makers aggressively marketing and promoting their own content, much like musicians do today.

"Film and music are reliant on indie artists injecting new ideas, new content, and new artists. Games aren't there--yet, not on the scale of independent music and independent film. But, you'll see large developers becoming more reliant and accepting of these ecosystems. As gaming becomes more respectable, there are people willing to try out more games, ones that move outside [the usual] boundaries. And as audiences becomes more aware, we will develop an audience that's looking for independent games."