They've left the Wii U to die.

[Raze]

Hiku said:

"Third party games are best enjoyed on Steam" is a rather silly comment, because that's ignoring the many people who's console library mostly consist of games that aren't even on Steam. If you're a big fan of shooters and western rpgs, then sure. If you're mostly into Japanese developed titles, then you're gonna be out of luck for the most part. More Japanese titles have found their way to Steam lately, but there's still a very very long way to go.
Out of my 35+ third party PS3 games, only 9 of them are on Steam. So that's not a good alternative for me at all.
And even besides all of that, a lot of console owners simply don't enjoy gaming on PC for a myriad of different reasons.

Let me rephrase that - 3rd parties are fading away because console game development is too high risk/cost. Studios have been disappearing in droves over the past 2 generations due to the rising costs of development. Only the few big 3rd party publishers find it worthwhile. The innovative indie devs are finding better success and a more faithful fanbase on Steam. That leaves console gamers with very limited options, and mostly sequels of the same game ad nauseum. Innovation lies within the new blood, and little of that is trickling down to the console market.

Factor that in with the logic that this generation of consoles will not as a whole, be as lucrative as the last generation, and we will start seeing investors looking for different answers. Cloud based gaming, portable gaming, etc are all paths investors are looking towards. High powered consoles will start to fade into the niche market it once grew from.