Turns out there's a massive amount of profit to be had in successful indie games. The distribution channels are spectacular today, from the general Web to Steam to Amazon to Xbox Live etc.
The unintended consequence of charging that much for patches is that simple updates just don't happen, and that everybody gets a lesser game as a result. As much as one would say "get it right the first time", everybody makes mistakes. Thus when it costs $10,000 to fix a save game issue, it's may be a business decision to not patch. Thus, for better games, being in that position shouldn't happen.
And the only other major players are the "addictive but not exactly fun" mould of social gaming companies :(
(I have the pleasure of getting the double whammy of not only reading about the US-based social gaming companies like Zynga et al., but also the Japanese ones such as Gree/DeNA/etc X_X)
Even the new Final Fantasy Tactics S game that was announced is a social game :( http://www.gametrailers.com/side-mission/50952/square-enix-i...