Big studio vs Small studio

While looking up Infinity Ward as an example of a large studio to contrast with smaller independent studios I found an interview with Robert Bowling, Infinity Ward's community manager. He provides an interesting insight into how the studio behind the highest grossing game of all time developed Modern Warfare 2.

Back when developing Modern Warfare 2 Infinity Ward was a relatively small when say compared to DICE, the developer company behind Battlefield Bad Company who have approximately 300 employees.
Infinity Ward had a fairly limited time-frame to develop Modern Warfare 2, but apparently they used that to their advantage as a tool to drive their development. They also looked at the importance of all aspects of the development, spending a good portion of their budget on audio, hiring Hans Zimmer to provide the score.
Infinity Ward had the advantage of having such a big budget behind them. They could do something that no independent game could compete with. Despite the limited time-frame in which to work they managed to turn that into an asset as well.

The interview is short but can be found here:
http://www.develop-online.net/features/669/Interview-Infinity-Ward