counter: the "soullessness" (or let's be more specific, the adherence to formula, the creative safety, the rote blandness) of AAA titles isn't because the people making them don't care, but because the AAA mode of video game production places very tight constraints on that production so that even department leads can't impose their vision through writing, gameplay design, world and character design, or anything else without jeopardizing the funding of the entire project before release, which is only perceived as a risk by publishing execs, even if it's a development team with proven success. The problem isn't even design-by-committee so much as design-by-fear.