There are a great variety of factors that come together to push an industry in a given direction, some of which can be spoken on at quite a length, by themselves.
To simply though, picture the Triple A console industry as a large animal, one that's been consistently growing and growing and eating more and more. The larger it gets, the more it needs to eat to survive. For a good while, food was plentiful and it gorged and gorged and never expected there not to be enough, no matter how big it got or how hungry it was. By the time it saw it was there wasn't enough it could eat - but it was too big to stop - it started spending it's energy in maladaptive ways, poisoning the the bed in which it's food would grow, as a solution to making the dirt edible, for a time.
The parable of the beast, thus described, is a bit silly, but it basically communicates the nature of the 'hands free' unchecked growth of business and the futility of mega blockbuster rockstardom maintenance to compensate for of the inevitable diminishing returns.
You can grow to big to survive.
I'm not worried about a full tilt industry reboot like in 82; it's gotten to diversified and ubiquitous to stop. People want games, ergo, someone will step up to make em. If you look at the old hand talent breaking away from the larger merged business giants, you can sorta see where things are headed. Ken Levine. John Carmack. Chris Roberts. Tim Schaeffer. These kinds of creators, ironically, can't work well in the high money, risk averse triple A industries...
I don't know what the signs mean; where it's all headed. Just that there will be much in flux on all levels, to the delight and despair of the consumers and creators alike.
