I’m not much of a gamer, but: They destroyed their own market by chasing cross-platform libraries and developer accessibility. The advantages of a console are a tertiary priority for all except Nintendo, for whom it is a secondary priority (which is why they are an exception as the article notes). This drove people to PCs. In my opinion the original Xbox is where this trend really kicked off.
Consoles still have advantages but games and consoles are made by for-profit companies. Until now prioritizing their unique advantages has decreased potential revenue even if it improved the experience. The profit bump from cross-platform libraries and universal SDKs was too enticing to resist. So they made PCs to play PC games with a custom OS in a console footprint. But chasing short-term profits turned out to be self-cannibalizing for the market.
I’m not much of a gamer, but: They destroyed their own market by chasing cross-platform libraries and developer accessibility. The advantages of a console are a tertiary priority for all except Nintendo, for whom it is a secondary priority (which is why they are an exception as the article notes). This drove people to PCs. In my opinion the original Xbox is where this trend really kicked off.
Consoles still have advantages but games and consoles are made by for-profit companies. Until now prioritizing their unique advantages has decreased potential revenue even if it improved the experience. The profit bump from cross-platform libraries and universal SDKs was too enticing to resist. So they made PCs to play PC games with a custom OS in a console footprint. But chasing short-term profits turned out to be self-cannibalizing for the market.