Everything isn't really becoming sanitized or sterilized though.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=3GNCWkTPgY0Balders Gate 3 is shaping up to have the same level of violence as DOS 1 and 2.
Elden Ring is changing up the Soulsborne combat a bit but it's the same quality as their previous titles
https://youtube.com/watch?v=7EF2VSyZK3Q
We've already had many indie games attempt ambitious sizes of scope
https://youtube.com/watch?v=3TL1ueQlBz8https://youtube.com/watch?v=4ft-1WZx9ns
Games still spread via word of mouth as a primary means of getting around. Honestly it sounds like you're having a very narrow viewpoint. Yes the internet changed things around. You just need to re-find where everything went.
That's not what I meant at all, either. I feel you're being obtuse just to be right. Violence is a universal, every culture has it. The only countries I know of that has censored it were Australia, Japan and Germany. Three particular markets that don't really bring much to the table. China has stepped up against it now, though, but they stepped up against all video games thus far so developers may no longer be trying to appease them like Hollywood has failed at.
Sanitized or sterilized meant strictly societal sensibilities -- most often to appease a vocal minority. If you prefer I can use processed instead like "processed foods", where it's all the same flavor of shit and all the nutritional value is stripped from it. If it offends someone or is considered harmful, that takes a hit to the ESG. You can make them colorful, but it can't have any unapproved messages. You can make it big and full of stuff, but it can't have anything that would anger someone. You can't have it be alien either, because that would scare away people who don't understand the culture as opposed to exposing it to them. You can't buck the trend because ESG scares away investors. The entire goal of it is to ensure we all produce the same level of shit, for the assholes running ESG it's purely political and for the corporations it's about maximizing profit. Each nation used to have a cultural export, something unique to it in its media. That's slowly no longer becoming the case.
Game mechanics is genre which I said before I wasn't referring to, your Elden Ring argument holds no weight. Also, 3rd Party isn't indie; Praey for the Gods qualifies because it's like three dudes or something, but BioMutant doesn't. BioMutant got funding from THQ Nordic. That's not indie. I wasn't really referring to indie anyways since I was focused on ESG shit and globalization, besides they're beholden to a different monster such as social media. All it takes is one dumb accusation and they'll try to destroy you for a dopamine hit, that's why so many try to appease those particular rabid individuals. I mean the sound guy got fired from Subnautica because of his politics alone, because they got enraged by it.
It's okay to disagree, you don't care about this shit whereas I do. That's all there is to it.