I think it depends on how you look at it. I would say that the average quality of games of the 2000s is inflated by the fact the clunkers are completely forgotten. When you think "games of the 2000s" you think of the good ones, but Micro Machines V4, Haze, and of course BIG RIGS OVER THE ROAD RACING also existed.

I also feel like a lot of games these days feel worse than they actually are on launch, simply because they launch without as much QA as earlier games because devs just figure they'll patch bugs later.

However, I do think gaming in general these days is a lot less creative and more "transactional" than in the past. As for why, I think pic related speaks for itself. Classic "video games" as we know them are pretty quickly becoming a minor part of the industry, and they're taking on aspects of mobile games. Civ 7 and Rome Total War (remastered)'s UIs look fucking disgusting - like they were made for phones and tablets. Which they probably were.

>>719772473
I don't see why they'd need to. Most of those games are easily emulatable or cheap to pick up second-hand and since most are single-player you're not missing anything by playing them 20+ years later.