The reddit user kmesithax wrote a brilliant comment yesterday about the realities of game console development, describing the tools and costs:

Well, no, there is no OpenGL or any graphics API for that matter, it’s all some stupid low-level hardware API that you have to tickle to get any 3D rendering to work.

and

So let’s say you get over your initial API shock, you have a decent handle on what all the little libraries do, and you wanna buy some development hardware now. Well, uh, okay. That’ll be anywhere from $2,600 (leaked 3DS devkit figures) to $10,000 or more (leaked Xbox 360/PS3 devkit figures).

This reminds me exactly of the pre-iPhone “walled garden” mobile app world, when you needed ~$10,000 for a development license for Qualcomm’s “BREW“.  The original article  “The Minecraft Test” (e.g. could your platform spawn the next Minecraft?) is a fabulous way to think about platform openness.  (Also see Nate Brown’s post “Stupid, Stupid Xbox!!” for an insider critique).

The console platforms have completely missed the market transition to open, low-friction developer on-ramps, and it’s no surprise the console market is now anemic.  In contrast, the new OUYA console (I have one on pre-order) has a fledgling, but very open SDK and just had a “game jam“.  The OUYA is under-powered relative to current consoles, but I bet the openness will more than make up for that issue.