Don't forget that big budgets ALSO provide more freedom for creativity in development. The past few years have proven this, just look at LA Noire. That game would've been canceled years ago if it weren't for R* throwing so much money at it.
I think that's more the exception than the rule though, and has a lot to do with Rockstar knowing its fanbase.
Look at movies. The only things given huge budgets 9 times out of 10 are sequels and licensed material, basically stuff with a built-in fanbase. Occasionally you get something like Avatar that comes along as an original IP that shatters all records, but those are increasingly rare.
Rockstar in this analogy is something akin to Pixar (as funny as that sounds), where the studio itself is enough of a brand name to put out more original IPs than other studios, and even then occasionally they need to do a Cars 2/GTA 5 to fund the next couple projects.
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Thank you, Eddie Guerrero.
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