So since we're on GBAtemp I think we can make a few assumptions.
- Many of us grew up playing games since at least the GBA, for one thing we've now reached adulthood where our interests change.
- A lot of us played a lot of Nintendo. The era under Iwata was definitely different than it is now. Consoles made under him were attempts to be more social (from pictochat to miiverse) and the blue ocean strategy, which focused on low-skill and party games, which tend to be more replayable in my opinion.
Since the 2000s the game industry has changed. Just as the internet has been definitively shown to run on ads, the money has been found to be microtransactions and subscriptions (90% of profit comes from 10% of people seems to be the new stage of capitalism, Disney World for example has fully embraced this principle). MMOs have died unless you live in China or Korea, the idea of logging into a world of avatars just isn't interesting anymore (as Zuckerberg is finding out the hard way). Outside of mobile games consoles have returned to the 90s, you get a standard controller and one screen, so motion, stylus, and dual screen games have died. There tends to be about three different art styles, hi-res snes, vague mobile cartoon/anime, and photorealism. Open world and endless customization has continued to conquer from Mario to Zelda.
In other words the video game industry has matured, they've found what is profitable and will endlessly rehash this for us. We will always get more of the franchises we love and there will occasionally be something genuinely new, but this is it for awhile I think. I imagine this is how some people felt in the later years of the 2600 before the NES launched.
As well something new for us is the internet as skinners box. It has been redesigned to be uniquely addicting (for surveillance capitalism and advertising) and has destroyed our sense of time or enjoyment ("no one is ever bored, everything is boring"). If you used to spend 5 hours a day gaming or pulling out your ds at lunch break but now spend 5 hours browsing reddit, twitter, discord, or refreshing news feeds or whatever then hopefully this message might make you want to reconsider your time.
Anyway these are my thoughts, maybe I'm wrong. We are getting older but the world we grew up with is also gone. I know there's a lot of old people who believe video games became uninteresting with the launch of the n64 and hoard games from the 80s, so perhaps we're just reaching their stage. These days I either spin up Mario Kart to play with friends while chatting or alone I'll pull out some nostalgic favorites to play for a half hour or so.
Edit: also the internet has killed couch co-op gaming or lan parties, which I'm sure a lot of people's fondest memories are from.