Forget Halo 3 the next wave of gaming is coming from Independent gaming companies. No mutli-million dollar budgets just original ideas.

Check out this years finalists in the 2008 Independent Games Festival. Considering the success of BK Games it seems casual gaming is (or always was) a force to be reckoned with.

There is nothing stopping a brand sponsoring these "Independent games" and becoming the next Desktop Tower Defence.

Many of these developers are experimenting with XBLA games and WiiWare games, which means you won't need large budgets to produce games for these consoles. And with around 10 million of each console out there that's a huge market.

Independent games are like Indie movies. Except there is more potential for it to explode and become a gaming institution. Like "Desktop Tower Defense" has become or "Bejeweled" before it.