I agree. Every time one of the AAA shops fires waves of game devs, I look forward to seeing more smaller indy studios pop up. The better games are made by studios run by people that want to make something fun, not people looking to squeeze every penny they can out of a game release.
Exhibit A and B, Expedition 33 and Baldur's Gate 3, we can add exhibit C with Kingdom Come Deliverance 2, I didn't play that one though. Larian grew pretty quickly after Baldur's Gate 3 blew up, but Expedition 33 is a condemnation of every single lie AAA studios spit out about the costs of game dev
Someone has to fund the new indies, and that money ultimately comes from the same kinds of investors as AAA. We are seeing droves of indie closures or struggling to get funding indie studios.
Not every indie studio is going to succeed, but every single AAA studio is at a point where they are too big to fail. This is the problem with the market right now. AAA studios do whatever they want and we have to just take it. I'll stay with my indies thank you. Team Cherry seems to be doing fine.