Hell, all the most respected studio's are those who develop their own games. Unreal, Id, Blizzard etc etc. It is the publishing houses and their slave companies that everyone looks down upon.
Really? ID and Epic are notorious for releasing games that are little more then tech demos for their latest engines, which is where those two studios have traditionally made most of their money. The best games developed using ID tech engine have been 3rd party games; Doom engine gave us Hexen and Strife, Quake engine gave us Half-Life, Quake 2 engine gave us SiN, and SoF Quake 3 engine gave us Medal of Honor, Call of Duty, Enemy Territory, Jedi Academy, Alice. The best games developed using Unreal Engine have likewise been 3rd party; Deus Ex, BioShock, Republic Commando, Arkham Asylum, Borderlands, Mass Effect, XCOM: Enemy Unknown.