Why don't people like hard games anymore?

[Ostro]

Just look for niche games or unpopular games, those are mostly hard and simply don't appeal to the masses because of either that or because they are not cinematic. Take a look at the real popular games nowadays and you get an idea of what the masses want, gaming is a pop thing by now, it's not a niche thing itself anymore.
Gamers who were all in for the "niche market" back in the days and going for high scores and crazy things on games that people like to label as repetitive, boring or bad (because too hard - "omg this game is uncontrollable" or "gosh this game sucks, it doesn't do what I want!! and no, it's not me who's doing it wrong!!") are not the audience publishers are looking for, they are a minority.
I don't get why people loved the last Tomb Raider and were going all crazy about it. I could understand it was well produced and pit together but it was more like an entertainment thing, nothing that defines a game to me.

So keep looking for niche and/or arcades and you will find what you loved in the past. Sure, there are games every now and then that break the rules and are still popular but why limit the fun to those when the world is full of great games as we know and love them? You can't expect to find them along big names like EA, Microsoft, Activision, Sony, Nintendo, ...