The closest some nobody could do to be a console dev with little money was to be in the XNA ghetto on the XBL store, or to develop for a failed console designed to be open but that nobody had because only others in the circle had it (Ouya). Maybe you could target an obsolete console. To be a console dev; you had to do all these requirements the console makers demanded (including installing security systems at home), sign numerous NDAs, and most importantly have "something to show". But also, you had to have a publisher and this is what burnt a lot of devs during the 360 era: as you couldn't self publish a game you had to either find a publisher or hope that Microsoft Game Studios would sell the game for you.

Also before Steam Greenlight and then paying to put your game there; you had to have Valve do all this stuff to approve your game. Postal 2 (back when RWS was sort of in "hibernation" after the Postal 3 fiasco) was a game that was constantly turned down by Valve but not by GOG or no-name stores like Desura. Then when Postal 2 was on Greenlight, it met the needed votes instantly and Valve reached out and they finally were able to get on the biggest PC platform. That was just on digital btw; because if stores didn't stock your retail games back in the day when they still had huge PC game sections, it was a death sentence.

Nowadays anyone with a computer can make a game and submit it to Steam, where normies can find it as opposed to seeking out a site to download a game. Even if like 10 people post reviews and it languishes in obscurity, that is further along than you would have gotten in 2005-10.

I mean technically you can get the N64 version on Xbox now through rare replay where live and reloaded I think only works on the OG xbox. Not sure why they haven't brought that over to the newer systems considering they spent all that time remaking it and locking it on a console that hasn't been made in over 20 years.