What about all the games that ripped off Doom or all the cheap crappy platformers that just did that same thing over and over with little changed between them?
I would say the market is more conservative now, because of us. We are more critical and have a way to express our distaste in a game to a wide market. This wasn't the same in the 90's (though it was starting). If you push out a game that is unique and tries really hard but still is not fun or is flawed in some way it will be railed about on the internet in moments. And people wont have to buy it or know someone who bought it to know this.So if you are going to drop a large chunk of money on something it makes sense to make sure you know there is a market out there for it. But since you are sure you can make that money back you can then risk a bit of money on something else that you aren't sure of.
We also expect more, look at stories in games they used to be really basic and formulaic, we as gamers demanded more. Now they have to pay much more money to writers to get a good story, more money they might never get back. Even still games get made that the company is unsure of, Red Dead Redemption was slated to never make any money, it was a project of love by Rockstar...and it showed and people spent a lot of money buying it.
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