i think we're past peak PC gaming, and gaming in general. the real money is in social media, which i suppose steam has elements of. indeed perhaps that is the real fuel for its success, and not the game store aspect.
My predictions is by 2030 Xbox will be out of business, PlayStation will be where pretentious auteurs make games that are 80% cutscenes, most savvy gamers play indie PC games, and Nintendo remains the only big name game studio to not collapse.
I think Xbox game pass and their streaming services will ensure Xbox will continue to grow.
PlayStation are in a more precarious position because they rely on hardware sales. Xbox doesn’t.
PlayStation is also the hardest platform for amateurs to target.
That said, I don’t expect PlayStation to collapse either.
Your comment also suggest that you think EA would collapse. Which is laughable considering EA make a killing from monthly iterations of sports titles. They could survive on that alone, never mind all their other major cash cows.
People made the same predictions about movie budgets as well. Yet movie studios still make a killing despite the costs.
The infrastructure aside, creators havent properly used games to make art yet, just toys. In terms of film history, we are currently in the "train approaching stop" era of gaming at the AAA level with all these movie-games just trying to tell a static story with no real user interaction in it, and in the silent film era with indie games, where some games like DDLC and undertale (and mayne the fromsoft titles to a degree) beginning to do interesting things with the interactivity inherent in the medium. There is a long long way to go before the blockbuster fatigue era
How is the real money in social media? Those platforms that make money almost exclusively by making the user experience worse (in particular shoving ads and promoted content down your throat, and harvesting your personal data). In contrast, selling games actively makes money by giving people what they want.
For me it's really an ideal situation. I can play great games like overwatch 2, Apex legends, cs2, path of exile and more completely for free. I can ignore bullshit games like I dunno Genshin impact? I think that's one of the really toxic pay to win games. There's also that Diablo mobile game. I don't participate in those.
It's that simple. You offer a good deal I take it, offer a bad one I dont.