I'm 31 and I've noticed a fundamental shift in gaming. When I was younger, we were always looking forward to the next big thing. For examples, when the Sega Saturn, PlayStation, and Nintendo 64 were brand new, you never heard about anyone going out to hunt down an old Atari 2600. We didn't care about that. We looked forward to the future. Nowadays, even though PlayStation 4 and Xbox One are doing well, the people who own those machines seem to have contempt for them. They're like what Windows PC's were in the early 2000's. People hated them but felt they had to use them. At the same time, young kids, particularly teenagers and people in their early 20's are getting excited over the old stuff. Retro gaming is a huge business. Even the not-so retro consoles like GameCube and PS2 have been a good business for those who sell games. It never used to be like this.
So, to simply put it, I would say older gamers had it better because of what they got in the end whereas newer gamers have it worse because if you look at the trends and where the industry is heading, it isn't a very positive future we're looking at here.
Check out my art blog: http://jon-erich-art.blogspot.com
