“Prices have come down relative to inflation” might sound reasonable, but it’s a lie. Unit prices come down in all growing industries, as market base grows and economies of scale improve, more people train for careers in the field bring reduces labour competiton and therefore wages. They also aren’t costing in micro-transactions.

The bigger the studio and the more sales they achieve, the lower their costs … indies and small studios no doubt need to charge a higher price; but studios like 2K and EA could obviously be charging less.

The streaming algorithms have really nailed “perfectly adequate, totally forgettable” content, it’s pretty much all there is.

For me personally, it just comes down to the fact that nu-metal was terrible, imho.