As it's been noted already, there's a fairly big difference between the publisher and the developper; especially now that the industry is rather large. Before the last decade or so, many more developpers had to publish their own games; this is before people who were mainly interested in making money saw that the industry was as profittable as it is now, leaving only those who were genuinely interested in it to both fun and work their craft.
The current state of things means publishers are, for the most part, interested in making money; publically traded ones (EA, probably Activision as well), doubly so. There's plenty of people who are able to invest in the games industry without knowing any of the quirks involved, and it's hardly surprising that many of them are looking to make the quick buck rather than provide quality products. Keep in mind that these are the publishers, not the actual developpers.
Developpers are, obviously, those who actually work on the game. Like a lot of artisans however, they're not always the best at funding/marketing themselves nor their product. With the industry today, it's much easier to be just a developper; in earlier years you likely had to pull double-duty as a businessman as well. This separation means that game development is much more subject to the whims of the publisher rather than the creative design of the developper; after all, who has the money? This is why there's a lot more sequels, DLC (day-one DLC in particular), and other obvious cash grabs; some may be of respectable quality, but the volume of them is the bigger indicator. While developpers do have some degree of freedom, as someone has to come up with the ideas, they have a much harder time getting them approved.
Strangely enough, the best products tend to come from developpers who are able to fund themselves. The big products who are driven by people with both the skills to create a game and run a business at the same time. While pure creativity might seem like a better idea, these are the guys who know how to make things work. They also have the power to delay their games in order to refine the final product, something developpers under large publishers seldom ever receive.
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I guess that explanation doesn't quite answer the question; but if it's any indication, it's definitely not everyone who's in the industry only for the money. Some most certainly are, and being a publicly-traded corporation will almost certainly attract those individuals; however, these ones are actually rather separated from the actual game development.
Developpers on the other hand are generally in on it because they enjoy doing it, and more of them are getting into it now that they can get outside funding for their projects instead of having to pay for everything out of their own pocket. They can have great ideas, but their business sense can be rather.... well, terrible. Some may not know how to or when to drop a bad idea, and the publishers may not know when to say it's a bad idea either because they may have no clue what is a bad idea; it may be a grand idea, but the fundamental thing is that neither party truly knows what works and what doesn't.
That's why I said the best games come from people who are willing to play both sides of the coin. The ability to both come up with the idea and the know-how to see it through. While they may not be able to truely compete with the products from larger publishers initially, these are also the ones who will be able to get started on their own instead of having to go them; should they opt to go with the publisher, they may also know how to not let too much intellectual property and profits go to the publisher during the contract negotiations.
What I'm trying to say is that the best games come from people who aren't in it just for the money... but at least they know how stay in business. Their main aim in the end is the quality of the final product, and they're using their knack for business to see that the game actually gets made. It gives them a lot more control over the end result, even if that means they have more work to do.
Then again; no pain, no gain.