There's more to making a game than just making the code and hoping someone supports your efforts. From the wikipedia page, I don't find the story all that sympathetic, at least as far as vs Nintendo.
Story seems more like one of a troll or mental illness, and kinda sad.
He mentioned that he got an offer to work for Nintendo and lead his own team by a rep at GDC, but he turned it down because he didn't understand what they were offering him. I could 100% believe that because I could 100% see myself doing the same thing.
He also later said that the ridiculous behavior was all a viral marketing stunt gone wrong, which, again, I 100% believe because I could see myself...maybe not actually doing it, but certainly coming up with a similar idea to get attention for the project I worked so hard on.
IMO the best thing for him to do is lay low until everyone forgets about him, so that he can release his game in the future, maybe under a different title. Although that might be hard because it seems the Youtube documentary crowd has started to shine a spotlight on him recently (that's how I learned about this guy a few weeks ago)
Also, he did release a game titled "Bob's Game" on Steam, but it was a puzzle game rather than an RPG. I think the idea was that the RPG told the story of a game developer named Bob who was working on a game, and the game he released was the game developed by the Bob character in the RPG. It's a pretty cool concept, and I really hope this guy gets around to releasing the full thing some day.
I think it is pretty clear based on his behavior and the things he has said that he has some very serious issues. I won't discount his talent, he clearly has talent and skill, though he hasn't made good on a lot of the promises he made and boasted of.
My sincerest hope is that he would get the help he needs and use it to focus his energy and talent into his projects because as it is I don't think there will ever be anything resembling his original vision formally released, and that is a shame for everyone.
If that's the case ... still seems like 'guy throwing fit'.
If by "the big platforms" you mean Nintendo and Xbox, then yes. Sony is still as shitty about it as ever.
The only difference today is that it's certainly easier to find a publisher who has an SDK, so you don't have to apply for one yourself.
IIRC, getting approved for a Sony SDK requires a hefty down payment, proof of a physical office space, and you have to submit the resumes of your development team and hope Sony thinks they're good enough. Then you have to wait many months to hear back. I think you even need to have a project under development, or at least a complete design document.
Although, not sure what would get published, there's not much of a game that anyone has ever seen according to the posts on HN.
Not sure access to an SDK was really the biggest challenge.