Speaking with the BBC, Lionhead studios boss and the creative mind behind Black and white as well as Fable, Peter Molyneux, commented on the performance of the current generation of consoles, the success of GTA IV and LittleBigPlanet's lackluster sales.

"2008 was the year that the Nintendo Wii got even better, more than anyone really thought possible when it first launched. The 360 did well, although it was put into the shade somewhat by the Wii. PlayStation 3 has been disappointing to say the least," he said.

"On the gaming front, GTA IV was a real moment for the industry. Rockstar nailed how you characterise a game and their engine and cut sequences are state of the art. However, only a few people actually saw all the cut sequences because the game was so tough to play. Are we making games too difficult? That's a question the industry has been asking itself of late."

"We - as developers - are finally comfortable with the next-gen consoles and we saw a slew of sequels this year. Gears of War 2, Fallout 3, Fable II, the seventh Tomb Raider."

"One of my personal favourites was Little Big Planet; superb artistry and a fantastic marketing job by Sony - yet it didn't make the numbers. I wonder if Christmas is really the right time to release a new title. We've got into a rhythm [of sequels at Christmas] which is all fair and well while people are buying games but we have to make sure we don't get complacent."

Molyneux expects 2009 to be hard on the gaming industry. "Next year, well, it's all looking a bit dry," he said. "All the triple A titles came out this Christmas and while there is stuff in 2010 we can look forward to, off the top of my head I cannot think of anything next year that really excites me."

"Everyone says games are good value for home entertainment, despite the relatively high price. I'm not so sure. I think we're going to see a lot of price pressure put on games."

"And as for Lionhead: now we've got Fable II out of the door we can focus on our other project - it's super secret for now - but we might announce it next year."

For his new year's resolution, the famous Metal Gear Solid creator, Hideo Kojima, decided to reorganize his studios "from zero" in order to be on equal footing with major western studios.

"We're currently reviewing everything - from the team structure to tools and our staff - in order to make Kojima Productions a team that can challenge foreign creators and software houses," he told Famitsu as part of their 2009 preview. "So, because of that, 2009 is going to be a very important year for us."

"I've come to understand that the way we've made games up until now won't translate globally, and I've come to think that I need to make Kojima Productions a team that can compete alongside the rest of the world," he added.

Kojima noted that the increasing costs mean that it is not viable any more to produce AAA titles for the Japanese market alone. He added that he has already studied western studios' techniques and picked a few of them for adoption.

Dave Matthews, F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin's lead artist, admitted that TimeGate Studios' F.E.A.R. expansions Extraction Point and Perseus Mandate must have driven off a number of the series' fans.

F.E.A.R. was developed by Monolith studios and published by Vivendi in October 2005. The 2 companies parted ways later on and F.E.A.R.'s copyrights were left to the publisher, Vivendi, who commissioned TimeGate Studios to create the aforementioned sequels. Both sequels as well as the console ports of the original F.E.A.R. received lukewarm reviews.

"[TimeGate] took the story in a direction that we didn't intend," Dave Matthew explained. "We look at Extraction Point and Perseus Mandate as an alternate universe, a 'what could have been', and because of that it doesn't necessarily diminish the story that we were trying to tell. F.E.A.R. was about Alma, F.E.A.R. 2 is about Alma, and we wanted to continue the story the way we originally intended."

Matthews also promised that the Project Origin's console ports will be much closer to their PC counterpart than was the case with the original F.E.A.R.

"Now we're handling all three versions, we've changed our development structure to develop all three SKUs simultaneously and there's no lead platform," he said. "While there will be some slight variations between the different versions, so if you're on PC you can push some things further, our main goal is to make sure the experience is synonymous across all three platforms."