I think it’s a mix of things, as others have noted. Age definitely plays a part though, I think, and I’ve felt the same thing you have. The period of mid teens to early twenties is hugely formative and lots of preferences you acquire during those years settle in deep. I feel this mostly with music, nowadays. I remember being a teenager and constantly fiending for new bands, new artists, stuff I’d never heard before, the latest releases of my favorite artists. These days though I mostly go back to old favorites, stick to albums and artists I discovered during that 15-25 decade, even just play old records of my favorite artists instead of checking out their latest releases. Rarely do I get the impulse to go foraging for new stuff.

When you’re young you have a smaller database of similar experiences, so everything new makes a stronger impression. The older you get, the more you experience and the more any new input gets dampened by good old habituation and comparison to older similar experiences. Simultaneously, nostalgia grows more powerful with each passing year and so old favorites get more and more appealing.

To add to this though, there has certainly been a shift in how games are made, and it’s particularly noticeable in the AAA industry. I watched a video essay about the impact of the Unreal-ification of graphics in AAA games leading to homogenization of visuals, the proliferation of Ubisoft style open world collect-a-thon gameplay is very much felt (though maybe we’re moving away from it finally), and in general high budget games often end up overly streamlined and soulless.

Indie games exist, and many are excellent, but they of course do lack the capabilities that come with larger budgets.

Finally, the optimal monetization strategies for video games are starting to approach a very solved state, which has led to many publishers pushing predatory set-ups and focus on subscriptions, battle passes, microtransactions and Games as a Live Service. I’m not the biggest fan of Josh Strife-Hayes, but he has a great video about this from a year or two ago.

Combine all of these things and it’s not too unexpected to feel the way you do.

Totally normal with the current state of gaming. Hard to get excited about a game when in all likelihood it will release as a broken unplayable mess, missing promised features and rife with microtransactions. How many times can a person be disappointed before they learn to stop being excited in the first place? I know I have adopted a wait-and-see attitude about modern AAA games.

I will say I’m cautiously optimistic about the new Armored Core game, because Fromsoft is good people and the gameplay trailers I have seen look absolutely sick

Idk if this is an age thing, but just how the market is lately.

AAA games are so expensive I don’t even look their way for the most part. My gaming library is big enough that for the most part I can entertain myself until what I want might goes on sale.

Companies that never put their games on sale, hardly get my coin these days. Not because they don’t go on sale, but because I don’t feel interested enough to buy most of them at full price.

There are a few games that I feel I need to get at launch, but it’s honestly been a long time since that happened. Launches also have a good chance of being buggy, so it’s safer to wait until after some reception of the game goes around.

I’m more interested in smaller studios and indie games these days. The corporate side of gaming takes out a lot of the inspiration that sparks the idea of the game. I find less corporate teams are able to connect with the audience better.

There are of course exceptions to all this, but they feel rarer and rarer.

Yeah, IMO that’s just what getting old is.

“Older games” will always have an advantage, their releases span over decades and you’ll only remember the truly standout titles. There’s very few years where a single game can beat all of the older games that were released up to that point.