Could we be entering a new dark age of videogames?

Jeez man, I thought Nier was a mediocre game at best and I'm not into JRPGs like Persona 5 (and I don't even want to look at MVCI let alone play it) and I still have a more positive outlook than you. Don't get me wrong, It's painfully obvious that games have been getting easier due to the shift in the market. I still think that as the videogame market increases, so does the niche of people who enjoy difficult games, even if they don't grow at the same rate. As long as there is a niche market of people who will buy difficult games there will be developers willing to capitalize on it.

You mention Demon's/Dark Souls and I think that's a perfect example of what I'm talking about. Sure, they aren't the hardest games out there by a long shot, but they're certainly regarded as hard by modern gamers at least. Despite that, it's become a highly successful series because it's reputation as "le hardest game evar XD" attracted a horde of people looking for a challenge.

I don't think we've entered a dark age of videogames, but that we've already been in one for over a decade and I can see the light at the end of the tunnel now. That being said, I think it's looking bleak for fighting games in particular right now so I'll pour a 40 in the genre's memory.

It's not even close to 1983.

We've had so many good releases this year that I can't complain. Also, hard games are being constantly released after the success of From Software / Platinum Games' games: I've recently finished Furi, and man, that game SERIOUSLY kicked my ass. If any of you guys like a good Ninja Gaiden difficulty, this is the game. It was so hard that I even thought about (blasphemy!) lowering the difficulty level, but I resisted and man, was it satisfactory. It's even the good kind of hard game: after you really learn how to beat the bosses, you can consistently do it again without dying and in a very fast time, so you really feel that you got good at the game - especially since it has no "exp/levels/stronger weapons" bullshit; you use the same character/weapons/techniques through the entire game. It's not the character who gets better: it's you. REALLY RECOMMENDED.

Also, Cuphead is out there, too. There are people complaining about its difficulty? Of course. But the fact that it's ostensibly a hard game and that it's a successful one tell me that there is a huge public for games that are focused on gameplay and on mastering their mechanics.

I don't know how is the difficulty of Samus Returns or how will be Prime 4, but the fanmade AM2R feels like a proper Metroid game (not too hard but no walk in the park either): so, if you can't count on the big companies delivering challenging games, you can always look for indie developers.

If anything, I think the "dark ages" in the sense spidershinobi is talking about were in the late 2000s/early 2010s, when japanese games were being dismissed and people were flocking towards western games focused more on story and "cinematic moments" than gameplay: we got easy, completely linear games that tried to be all serious and mature (while the scripts were still largely badly written), when games were being sold as experiences and there was all that asinine "Are games ART?" discussion. It was the time in which Bioshock and Braid were the best things ever made because they were so artistic (they're not bad, but come on, there were better things), in which GTA tried to be all serious with 4, CoD became the main aspiration to every AAA studio, Final Fantasy was completely linear with 13, Ninja Gaiden 3 tried to appeal to a casual audience and games like the first NieR and Bayonetta were huge failures - compare it to nowadays, in which Bayonetta rereleases and a NieR sequel are successful.

I think one of the important things was the success of Dark Souls - it showed there was an appreciation for hard games, for non-linearity and exploration, for deep gameplay mechanics and, most importantly, for bigger japanese games. I don't even like Dark Souls all that much, but it came at the right time and was a surprising success after Demon Souls was mostly ignored.

So, if anything, I guess we are just OUT of the most recent video game dark ages. That's what I feel when playing Furi.

Also, a pc release was announced for Nioh, so I'm very happy about it. I just hope Koei-Tecmo doesn't screw-up the port, as they tend to do for pc releases.

I think what made those days so bad (and I'd even push them back as far as the mid 2000s) was that it wasn't just the western devs making these linear, piss easy games. Hell, you can argue that eastern devs fell into the "focusing more on story/cinematics than gameplay" trap way back in the 90s with the vast majority of JRPGs.
I think that's why indie games started gaining so much popularity during the late 2000s and onward, because there was simply no escape from these types of games otherwise.

I agree with your overall point but I feel the need to mention that the first Nier was a genuinely abysmal game. No mystery why that game didn't sell well.

Interesting.  You have me thinking now...What if the games feel diluted due to overexposure?  Perhaps we need to see developers from southern and central Asia or Africa for new perspectives?

Witcher III is perhaps one of the best games ever made. And it is from Poland.

I'm going to credit this post for making me go out and reacquire the Metroid Prime Trilogy on Wii. Thanks Dan! You've always got my best interests in mind.