Ok so here is an opinion of my.

As pretty much 99.9% know COD,FIFA,GTA are all huge. Obivously there are like 30 million hardcore gamers out there who love this stuff, but no.

This industry is being influenced and ruined by mainstream gamer's public perception

Lets look at this since they all think cod is " amazing and cool" they buy it in droves.

Since Activision is like," this bitch can milk money," they can keep usuing the same formula for who knows how long with no gameplay changes as long as COD still sells 20 million every year. Same with Fifa and Madden they do the exact idea but add like a roster update and maybe like 1 little new thing(I understand adding women is special but they should have been added long time ago). Now notice how these games also sell around 15-20 million(well madden sells 5 million in US but you get the point) a year for doing practically nonthing. Mainstream Gamer's have this idea that they should have what their friends have even though they buy almost the exact same game every single year for $60. Like Activision EA probably doesn't see the needs for new gameplay elements since itll sell regardless.

Now in conclusion as to why mainstream is the bane of this use to be amazing industry. They push for no new innovation(even if they complain about it, they buy halo and super mario bros over and over. They pushed the idea of microtransactions and faster release scedules(since they only buy stuff during the holidays). They also act like bitches to those that try to help this industry actually be great and not econically evil by complaining about games and hating on games that do innovate(or where I heard some people made fun of people who liked splatoon and bloodbourne sometimes).

That is why in this terribly written article I wrote myself that doesn't make sense,

mainstream gamers are the bane of this damn industry.

Hey! there's a market for everyone, I used to think like that but I don't care anymore. COD and NBA have more sales and more marketing but as long as I have my Zelda and my Persona I don't care.

EA's been doing the "roster upgrade" thing since the Super NES/Genesis days, not sure why that would be a new point of contention.

Each COD is a different game to be honest and they cycle in different studios to develop them.

Mainstream gamers bring in a lot of money. Perhaps if Ubisoft didn't make so much off Assassin's Creed, they wouldn't be able to make Rayman and Child of Light for instance. I do think it is disappointing that some traditional studios are slowly heading towards mobile, and that some studios are more and more risk averse, but I don't know if anything can be done about it.

What I hate about Activision and EA is... they got this AAA stuff which makes money without even trying, yet they don't take even a small portion of the profit to make something artistic, something they could be proud of. Like Ubisoft does, for instance.

Only mentioned EA or Activision since Ubisoft does make new ips every so often and resurrects some unlike the other 2.

Hey chill man. Cod and Fifa are pretty fun games, maybe you should check them out !

P.S: Believe it or not, no one and I mean no one will buy the next game if it's exactly like the one before it. Try playing Cod:Aw and then playing Cod:ghosts and tell me if they are both the same game.

The bane of creativity and diversity would be a better choice of words. For sheer monetary value; mainstream gamers have been keeping the industry afloat for more than a decade.
In principal, I agree with you, it's alll about semantics I guess.

Capcom with all of their Street Fighter re-releases are a perfect example.

Would console video games still even exist without them? You could obviously argue they are tainting the games that get released, but I'd rather have the games that come out now still come out, then consoles not be around at all.