It’s a problem only for the AAA industry,

No, it really isn't. Rather than just regurgitate what the "video game devs hate you but I love you so give me money" twitch streamers continue to say, actually listen to some developers.

Xalavier Nelson Jr has been pretty vocal about how incredibly hard it is to be an indie dev these days. And Strange Scaffold (his studio) is pretty much exactly what everyone says they want: They release REALLY interesting games on budget with no DLC. And people "wait for sales". Which makes pitch meetings REALLY difficult which, in turn, makes getting more funding to keep making games REALLY difficult. And that is for a very established studio with a solid portfolio. Let alone actual new developers who are finding their funding cut or cancelled over the past five or six years.

I'll also add on: What you are seeing are not "AAA games". At this point? You basically have the GTAs and Call of Duties and Star Citizen and MAYBE some of the higher profile Sony games that fit that bucket. The AAA market more or less died with THQ where they released a string of games that were REALLY good but just couldn't justify the development costs.

What we are mostly seeing are what would historically be considered AA/A games. Large scale games made by (ass pulling) O(10) headcounts with a LOT of money and MAYBE a support studio or very heavy contractor usage if they are more AA. And that is the market that is increasingly being destroyed. Which mostly leaves the "B Game" studios and the "I spent the past 10 years making this in my free time" indie studios and... I shouldn't have to explain why the latter is not sustainable.

And just to highlight this: Geoff Keighley has decided his latest obsession is bragging about how small studios are because he is, and always has been, an obnoxious prick who actively hurts the industry. And one of his favorite things to bang on is Sandfall's Clair Obscur. Which is a truly amazing game... that increasingly can't be made anymore.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clair_Obscur:_Expedition_33#Development

Founded by devs who had been heavily trained by the Ubisoft pipeline and all the benefits of working for a massive super studio. Questionable amounts of funding from Kepler Interactive in 2023 (right before the pandemic) that was used to headhunt LOTS of developers from major super-studios/publishers. And then they used said funding to hire "dozens" more contractors.

Clair Obscur is an "indie" game in the sense that Sandfall don't have long term obligations. But it was made by easily over a hundred people with major publisher investments. And, much like with my example of Larian above, much of the staff and techniques were trained on other games over the course of literally decades. Like, we ALL shat on Mindseye and the idea that "someone who looked at GTA is gonna make a GTA" and so forth. That IS what Clair Obscur was. It was just successful (in large part because more traditional JRPGs are on the decline and many people in The West had been ignoring it... so even more parallels to BG3).

As more and more of those publishers die off or are only interested in VERY short term investments? That money goes out the window. And as the major studios/super-studios like EA get shuttered? That pipeline that allowed Broche et al to understand enough about large scale project management to make their own games goes out the window. And more and more developers leave the industry because they need to live. Which means all the "I've been animating for 12 years" are gone and it is just the fiver crowd who need to "build out a portfolio" for one of the very few remaining jobs.