Video games used to be made by people who loved making and playing video games.

I'll bet there isn't a single game publisher CEO who likes playing video games.

As shitty as game companies have become, they wouldn’t pass up east money if there was a massive market for old niche games.

They do rereleases and remakes and remasters of games that will get a big buy in constantly these days

But if there are only 1000 hardcore fanboys for some obscure retro game then it’s unlikely to make money and not worth the effort

Video games are a structurally and intrinsically transitory business that is next to impossible to make a decades long living from. It takes advantage of charm and youthful eagerness to get kids excited to work in that industry, and then it mercilessly crushes every ounce of joy they had in the subject until they quit and go get a better paying job doing literally ANYTHING else. Any old timers in that industry have long since left the actual game development and moved into sales and distribution, or management of the firms themselves.

You should be lucky you get any games at all, because the industry would really rather not sell games, and would like to segue into slot machines in your living room if possible.

The AAA gaming industry has gotten to where it blatantly screws over its customers on a regular basis, and it gets away with it because it's too big to fail. It's not really unique in that regard, as it has joined every major industry in supplying demand while committing murder. What are you gonna do, not play our $70 broken games? Not fly a plane we can beat your ass on and drag you off? Not drive a car with basic options locked behind a subscription service? Not use a printer we can shut off whenever we feel like it? Not watch a $400 'Smart' TV that self-destructs every three years?

The difference, though, is gamers are also angry YouTubers, streamers, and shitposters. Companies that act dishonest cannot hope to fly under the radar because they will be meme'd to oblivion. This year has seen them at their peak worst (Gollum, Jedi, Redfall), yet the review bombing in retaliation has forced to them at least issue apologies. And then there were a multitude of "we're sorry" posts, so gamers made memes out of those.

I haven't watched the video yet, but I already know why they don't want you playing old games. It's obvious. Fun is money, just like orgasms are money. You spending time on an old game is time you could be spending paying $70 for EA to pee in your face with a day one disaster. You jerking off to a '70s golden age clip could be paying to jerk off to the latest stepmom video. They want you buying their poorly optimized, unplayable builds, they want you paying $70 to be a beta tester, and they want to justify increasing their prices while putting in as little effort as possible to show for it. When asked, "Why is your back catalog vanishing?" the response is to do a Jim Halpert confused meme face. But sooner or later, as word of mouth spreads, it will catch up. Videos like this are important for demanding, at least, the slightest amount of effort.