I kind of feel like Sebastian in a way. I don't really like the fact that traditional AAA gaming is on the decline. I'm all for progress, but not when it means ruining the core of the thing. I'm sure it will somehow work out, but it's a bit unfortunate that Bungie is ultimately helping to usher in the decline of the AAA game according to this thesis.

It's hard to say that the industry is dying, when the focus is simply shifting. There are still games such as Uncharted, The Last of Us, Witcher, Deus Ex, Dishonored, Tomb Raider, Titanfall, Elder Scrolls, and even Halo. Games where you pay for a single package, and much of the focus is the standalone experience that you get for $60.

The industry focus has shifted onto persistent game worlds, where a developer simply needs to build upon the experience and expand on something existing for the established userbase, rather than having to start anew and enter another three years of uncertainty and risk. As a side effect, you're now paying for access to a game rather than ownership of it, which isn't inherently a bad thing, just different.

It's a shame, but if you look at the failures of Battleborn, Titanfall 1, and even The Division, you can see why publishers are hesitant to gamble with the new $60 experiences (even if some of them are the more financially-viable persistent worlds).
Titanfall 2 got a second chance, is getting high review scores across the board, and it's still adding up to disappointing sales numbers, which doesn't help the notion of $60 standalone AAA games.

The sad reality is that if games like that want to survive, they have to take a page from the "persistent world" market and add Microtransactions to help boost their revenue. Still, that is understandable, and also not a bad thing (others can foot the bill for improved support or a more consistent flow of content), if they keep things cosmetic.

It's the end of an era, in many ways, but not the industry. Still, some Publishers will panic, and pump out stuff like Infinite Warfare (which has Modern Warfare remastered as an obvious attempt to capitalize on Nostalgia in order to combat declining sales and brand fatigue), or Assassin's Creed: Who Cares.

About number one. Anecdotal evidence: just left Best Buy and it was packed. Most AAA games were for sale digitally.

The continued success of crap like Madden, Fifa, Battlefield, etc with MMO RNG grindfest elements locked into certain game modes shows that while people are sucked into these, it's not destroying gaming, it just gives them a reason to play the same game more.

I understand that there is data that needs an explanation, and his is probably a good one. I question if bad launch week sales are appreciably hurting the industry. When people are bored of their games, they get new ones, and MMO players do play other games, but tend to pick them up on sale. I wonder if the increased numbers in discounted sales make up for it.

"AAA+" is just further integration of what the industry was already doing. It's sort of having the described effects, but that's not really much of a change in trajectory for AAA.

What'll happen as things come to a head is the interesting question. And has been for the last decade.