Is it just me or has the quality of AAA games declined substantially? Feels like every “good” game nowadays is a remake of another one.

That's because it is. The AAA games industry started really having issues the moment they started advertising their games as movies instead some 10 years ago.

I also partially just put the blame on age. I'm in my late 20's and I play a game maybe 1-2 hours max a day anymore. When you start to understand that games are marketed to the 12-30 demographic it starts to make sense.

Most anything new I play anymore are indie titles or single-player games, I can't keep up with online players anymore.

Yep. I fell ya.
Just wait for titles like Minecraft or Pinball Dreams having there comeback in Unreal > 4.x engine

xD

@TylerDDevRant Minecraft has already been remade in (I think) C++. That’s the cross platform version that Microsoft is pushing.

@killermenpl Right.

No, they haven't. All you've got to do is take a look outside of your own personal little box and experience other games. Then you'll realize how many good, quality AAA games are released.

@Numinex Okay. Thanks.

@GMR516 I think it has, yes. But, the Java version is still dominant. You're not loading ~150 mods with the C++ version.

Blizzard: Why should we invest in new AAA titles, when we make a shitload of easy cash by selling Hearthstone Cards...

It's the gamers/users fault here I'd say..

There is definitely an issue within the gaming ecosystem, so it isn't your perception, it's reality. The narrative that good AAA titles don't exist anymore is bullshit. But the crap just gets to be showed more, and it's not about hardware limitations - albeit of course having limitation obliges you to figure out innovative solutions - it's about the fact that companies are not eager to spend time and money on a new title if they aren't sure it will be a blast; and one can easily figure out that users with this average computational power one expects to have all the rings and bells so releasing a game it's gonna be costly. Basically remakes and perpetually continuing old series are safe bets. Also most users (as in "most children") are quite bitchy and prefer the latest flavorless FPS over anything other, even beautifully crafted masterpieces of gaming art. Sad story. But indie developers are already changing the rules, so don't worry too much. 😉

@SanitizedOutput In fact the situation we are into is the most fertile ground for having a great, great wave of great games from great indie devs. But they are basically because they do the thing every company should do in first place: create the game you want to play, not the one they want to pay 🎮