I’ve thought about this over the summer. I somewhat doubt it because I think too many people have been exposed to too many awesome games to want to go back to the shitty games many of us grew up with. However, I think we will see a reduction in new offerings going forward, because there’s just so many options available now.
There is a bit of a feeling like when the video game market crashed in the 80s where there were too many games produced, and while there were plenty of amazing games, there was also a lot of shit plus people had their limits, financial or otherwise. Compound that by the fact that many of these board games being made now are high-priced and people are reluctant to spend money on something they may not play that often.
I can walk into Tanuki Games or Dragon’s Lair here in Austin and I will immediately recognize games I have seen you or others mention or that I’ve read about on BoardGameGeek or Reddit and I’m zeroed in on a few games that I’m considering/wanting and I can be in and out fairly quickly. My middle-schooler will spend a couple of hours looking at every game if given the chance. A casual board game player like my wife would be absolutely overwhelmed unless I point her to one or two sections that I know she would like (Tanuki has a decent setup that doesn’t seem to be too overwhelming for casual players).
it’s not in our budget for too many of these games per year, and I have a backlog, so it could be a few years before I catch up. I would bet many others are in the same boat.