Some usability expert needs to develop a decent 3D modelling platform system much like Adobe’s Creative Suite. Autodesk produces these two everything 3D swiss-army knife programs which are glutted with features and competing development goals producing an impenetrable mess of software.
Adobe broke the graphic design process into functional clusters and focused attention on each. Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, ImageReady, Premiere, After Effects, DreamWeaver and Flash. Granted the last two weren’t originally theirs, they realized that those products fit into a cohesive platform for creative professionals. Each is specifically tailored to its purpose but interfaces well with the others.
If one were to take this concept to Game Development, you’d have tools specifically designed for creating game systems, story and other game design paraphenalia such as universe bible, character designs, concept art pipeline management etc.
The next tool would be a prototyping station. It would use the design decisions made in the first aspect or allow them to be made on the fly for quick and easy prototypes of different game mechanics.
Then there would be a fork in the system, allowing for concurrent but separate content and systems development. This would probably most resemble the existing game development tools and pipeline management apps. Code, game features, every aspect of game development would be traceable to a real person.
A porting toolset could be used to make porting games to various systems would be important.
A testing system would need to built that allowed for programmer run integration test and low-level code testing as well as simple play-testing and reporting system that plugs directly into the pipeline.
Finally, tools to easily convert all of the testing, game design and development data gathered over time into user support documentation.
Other tools for generating fan site content, news releases / media kits and other game development necessities would be important.
The trick is to view game development as a process of media creation just like any other - with its own demands and needs. Rather than some frankenstein monster of film, animation, software, community and book creation methodologies.