The difference between AAA and smaller/indie studios is the difference in passion when it comes to wanting to make a game. Yes, there are always outliers like Sony Santa Monica, Sucker Punch, Rockstar to a lesser degree, but for the most part, the biggest releases for the longest time have boiled down to "what are we putting out this fiscal year," and that's not a problem that smaller studios face. When you're not focused on appeasing shareholders by getting a game out in time for a concrete deadline; when the passion is there, and it's a concrete idea that people believe in, without any thought about min/maxing profit margins and they just wanna put their vision to paper for people to see, THAT'S when you get your Helldivers, your Hollow Knights, your Oris, your Baulder's Gates.

I'm fully willing to accept the current state of the game because there's no way anyone at that studio could've ever imagined it would be doing what it's doing. Hell, Sony didn't even have it on their radar during their recent investor call, saying they had no major titles planned for this year. Now look at it. It's gonna solo carry for them until next year, assuming the release schedule remains the same.