Because most of the time, older games were made with player enjoyment in mind, not shareholders.
Eh, there’s a huge number of shovelware for every console generation, plus less than stellar titles. The thing is that, due to all the years piling up, the amount of good stuff just increases.
True, but back then games were made to stand on their own instead of being a poorly thought out monetization machine.
I mean Big Rigs: Over The Road Racing was shit, but at least they only expected you to pay for it once… and you can still play it, you don’t have to wait for a lobby to fill up before it lets you into the game, a lobby that will never fill up because no one’s playing Big Rigs: Over The Fucking Road Racing
The developers who made Big Rigs probably wouldn’t have the budget to make an AAA game nowadays. A better comparison would be indie games, and there’s more of them (or it feels like it) due to easier development & distribution. (Which does involve shovelware). Even excluding Indies, AA games without subscription models are plentiful too.
Edit: (AAA games are a better example of being worse, I haven’t played them but comparing Assasin’s Creed or Metal Gear back in the day to now is better to show the bad practices. Thankfully, like I said, there’s just a ton more games and you don’t need to play the crappy ones)
