There was a time in the history of the gaming industry when the barriers to entry were pretty massive, verging on insurmountable for most, other than a few select companies. Games typically took three years to develop from initial concept to shelf title; required hugely talented and skillful teams of programmers and designers behind them; and all at a cost of many thousands if not millions of dollars.
It was hardly an enticing field for creative DIY developers to enter on a casual basis - but arguably this ensured a certain level of quality was maintained across much of the industry’s output (and rightly so; with new games typically averaging somewhere between £29-49 it’s only to be expected that a high quality product should be delivered).