It is really simple TC (altho tis likely allready been brought up)
The huge AAA titles we see are being made to have as broad an appeal as possible, they stray from a single target audience, in favor of as broad a potential audience as possible.
Sadly Straying from a specific target audience has some really huge glaring flaws per Default.
1) The game can not be as deep and complex as it should be. The Devs are forced to aim for the lowest common denominator in people, thus removing a whole lot of layers in order to have EVERYONE and thier mom understand how thigns work.
2) Can not have a very specific type of envioments. Niché audiences tend to call out for games with unique artstyles, and atmospheres, but you really need look no further then the SW to see why most AAA games can not do this without losing a huge segment of potential buyers. Making anything unique, or that does not appeal to the mainstream WILL hurt the sales, the few games that does try to nail something that is not easily digested by the entire populace will suffer the likelyhood of losing alot OF SALES.
Basicly most people and thus most potential consumers do not want to invest for jack in any kind of entertainment, if anything provokes thought, or the like, a huge possible segment of sales will drop, just look at movies, and the ones beinging most income.
WHich in turn has to do with a huge problem within the Games industry (and movie industry aswell) that most people will not acknolage, because it is REALLY unpopular to do so. Investers Demand a high return on thier investments, so the huge companys as EA and Activision is in truth having thier hands tied behind thier backs, basicly any game that does not live up to expectations, or bring back a profit for the investors (since noone invests unless they prediect a yield) can lead entire game companies crumbling down due to investers pulling all thier money out, This can happen even if the game is a sucess, and brings home enough to break even. A game like Homefront is a good example of this, the game broke even, it even gave a small pile of money in surplus, but Investors fled due to its scores, meaning that the game itself did well enough, but the public perception of the game, ended up THQ losing alot of money. its the same in the movie industry, as soon as investors are interduced into any kind of industry, the industry runs a risk of getting all freedom stripped away, usually it is not in the extremes, but the games and movie industries in particular has suffered far more then most other industried I know of.
So we have huge Publishers, with shareholders demanding a constant profit of all gambles, or the Publisher (and through them, the dev) must make sure there are always profits to be had, thus Niché games do not fit that mold of entertainment.
And sadly "trying to Please to everyone, and you will end up pleasing no one no one".
Weve seen alot of Devs getting closed down because they were not "mainstream enough" alot of genres getting "streamlined" aka dumbed down to the point of the games being pointless to play. The big Publishers afraid to take risks, due to a few reasons, one being a game failing sucessfully WILL hurt financially, and the public perception of a Publisher is now more important then the games they pump out, since loss of shareholders, can damage those Publishers far more then a string of bad returns on games can.
The Indie and smaller Publishers, suffer far less from this, and indeed often it is a none existant problem. Those smaller Games are more in line with games as they were at first, they have a target Audience they do not try to appeal to everyone, but those gamers who they try to appeal to, are thrilled about those games. Removing as much of the financial glout from the equation, and the oversized bloated industry is overall healthy for games development, or the Publishers must make sure the shareholders, are somewhat "true" and not just out for a quick buck (note most shareholders jump from project to project in order to capitalize on money, and WILL jump ship as soon as things go south).
I think that is why we also see all those kickstarter projects blossom up now, alot of those Devs are industry veterans, who SHOULD have huge weight to make the games they wanted to make happen, but boards of directors and other simply stiffle creative thought. Thus We see these really talented people, trying desperately to get as far away form the blight the industry have truely become, in order to get the games they want to make, made, and Interrestingly enough we see the Gamers, supporting them, seeing as the gamers, themself are alienated from the industry, where the games they used to love, is often just pale ghosts of what they were just a few gens ago.
It is ofcourse not the entire industry where this is happening ^^ I find it quite important that we see smaller Publishers, having incredible sucess with banking on niché games and series, dropped due to the lack of mass appeal, and we see gamers flock to those games. Ofcourse those flocking are those who tend to identify themselves as "gamers" the average consumer will aim for the big summer blockbusters. Just like in the movie industry.
-The above is an extremely simplified version of the cause, but I think it brings up enough points, and meat for possible discussion-
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