Here's a succesful instance of a game co-op I found back when I did my own research on the topic:
http://motion-twin.com/press
It's a commercial game studio that's democratically run and worker-owned.
Merely one of the many possible forms a game co-op could take, but a good start and an example of what's possible.
The really cool "Haxe" open source game engine was developed there. http://haxe.org/