Console manufacturers will have to adapt and liberalize self-publishing to stay relevant. AAA gaming continues to enshittify, and indie games / smaller studios are the ones releasing the good titles.
Valve knows this, and the ease for developers to release on Steam means they’re well positioned to ride out the transition. By comparison, releasing on console means signing license agreements, getting access to proprietary SDKs, submitting your game through an approval process, getting each update reviewed, etc etc. The barriers make releasing on console very unappealing for smaller developers.
So IMO if the consoles want to ride out the decline of AAA games, they will need to reinvent their image and how they interact with smaller studios and indies.
Console manufacturers will have to adapt and liberalize self-publishing to stay relevant. AAA gaming continues to enshittify, and indie games / smaller studios are the ones releasing the good titles.
Valve knows this, and the ease for developers to release on Steam means they’re well positioned to ride out the transition. By comparison, releasing on console means signing license agreements, getting access to proprietary SDKs, submitting your game through an approval process, getting each update reviewed, etc etc. The barriers make releasing on console very unappealing for smaller developers.
So IMO if the consoles want to ride out the decline of AAA games, they will need to reinvent their image and how they interact with smaller studios and indies.