Consoles have been a closed box to most developers, allowing only a few updates to games on their systems, and only then after long periods of waiting and testing. The best way to see the effects of this is to compare Team Fortress 2 on the Xbox with its PC brother. One is a fine shooter that has proved itself through the test of time, the other is a fine shooter that has proved itself through the test of time with a huge ecosystem of crafting and collectibles that change the very nature of the game. As rumors of next-gen consoles begin to gain a foothold in reality, developers are hoping for more access and open platforms to showcase their work. Gamasutra has the story.
On the console-makers side, they look in horror at the PC world with Day 0 patches and gamebreaking bugs. By limiting the ability of game studios to update their games and demanding a rigorous test of any patches that do get through, the consoles force a higher quality from the games on their systems.
Sometimes it works, sometimes *coughskyrimcough* it doesn’t so much.