Publisher Kalypso Media USA and its recently released debut title, Tropico 3, have something in common: both are trying to build an empire from the ground up. Speaking with the The Washington Post, Kalypso's El Presidente Deborah Tillett describes the current economic climate as a good time to start something up, because "you can't get worse than zero."

Tillett explains that Kalypso had the opportunity to buy the Tropico rights from Take-Two because the previous games sold "hundreds of thousands of copies." That's great for Kalypso, but Take-Two wouldn't have been able to make enough profit if it had done another installment. She notes Tropico's figures are "a pittance compared with many millions of unit sales for every new GTA game."

The Germany-based Kalypso plans to release about 10 games a year, most of which will be indie titles that couldn't make the trip across the Atlantic. Tropico 3, a sunny, stylish reboot of the series, was developed by a team in Bulgaria and is getting respectable marks from the critics.