Things were on a worse path around 2003 before we had digital distribution. Gaming had a great late nineties when computers were good enough to not cripple every complex game idea with technical limitations, but games were still small enough that a handful of people could get something cool and unique made and into shelves. A lot of the PC game franchises were visibly crippled by the mig-oughties because suddenly games needed to run on XBox as well, and XBox was lower spec than an average gaming PC and dictated a more simplistic user interface. Also the AAA expected quality creep had started going with mandatory voice acting, elaborate cutscenes etc., with bigger budgets leading to more design by committee and people playing it safe and making boring things. You started seeing lots of samey cookie-cutter action-adventure games filling the shelves, with little market left for the older simulator, strategy and complex RPG PC game market until Steam opened up the indie market floodgates.
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Things were on a worse path around 2003 before we had digital distribution. Gaming had a great late nineties when computers were good enough to not cripple every complex game idea with technical limitations, but games were still small enough that a handful of people could get something cool and unique made and into shelves. A lot of the PC game franchises were visibly crippled by the mig-oughties because suddenly games needed to run on XBox as well, and XBox was lower spec than an average gaming PC and dictated a more simplistic user interface. Also the AAA expected quality creep had started going with mandatory voice acting, elaborate cutscenes etc., with bigger budgets leading to more design by committee and people playing it safe and making boring things. You started seeing lots of samey cookie-cutter action-adventure games filling the shelves, with little market left for the older simulator, strategy and complex RPG PC game market until Steam opened up the indie market floodgates.
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