Mainstream could either go two ways:
1. Attempt to achieve a broader audience, succeed and use all the earnings to fund BETTER games of more quality.
2. Attempt to achieve a broader audience, suceed, then sell out.
The Final Fantasy series has be guity of that in the recent years(all the sucky spinoffs). Besides games, the horror movie genre going mainstream is also responsible(IMO). Horror movies haven't been the same since late 90s, and they've become more plastic. That's one of the reason I kinda took a second take when they used the word "reboot" regardin Lords of Shadow. That little word has been tossed around plenty much in the horror movie genre, and it's probably responsible for the worst aspect of modern horror, "souless remakes". Though, I DO trust Kojima. As long as it doesn't turn out to be a GoW clone and something a WHOLE LOT MORE. If it succeeds in doing things(on a gameplay level) that the GoW series could only dream about, that's all I'm hoping for!
I got a bit off topic. IGA, wow, I'll miss a lot! I really loved the spirit that he brought to the CV series. Classed it up a bit. Made it fancy. His story ideas were very interesting, though they never really rose to the occassion. Loved how he used Ayami Kojima and Michiru Yamane! Love them both(and hope they still have a place in the CV series). IGA was very dedicated to the series, and at least tried to make things fit. I really would've liked to see what he had in store for the Demon Castle War(1999) and that even where the Belmonts lost the abilty to wield the VK. I wonder if we'll ever know?