Its not hard to quantify what makes a studio successful. You nearly said it, and a thief video here I watched a few days ago puts the whole picture into view. Its the passion, focus, and determination of the people who want to make something great. When you remove these people and force those that remain to do a shareholder gauntlet good games dont get made. Because good games are works of passion that come from the heart and mind. They strip the chaff and leave you with just the intended experience. Triple As dont do that anymore because the intended experience is shareholder profit not a gameplay loop. Those That Be will continue to fall to Those That Will Be and the lesson will never be learned under the blind gaze of capitalism.