"Well, that is an interesting question. I believe that as a commercial industry it became more ‘mature’ – i.e. bloated with far too much middle management all wanting their own slice of the pie and shareholders demanding never-ending short-term success – around 1995. However, I feel that creatively, from a software design point of view, it went from being a very powerful, innovative industry to a creatively weaker, me-too industry at about the same time. Put is this way: I was earning more money in 1994 and having more fun than I am now. So from my point of view, commercially, it has gone backwards because I am making less money, because the middle managers and their bean-counting overlords have largely disempowered the creative intellectual property generators from having sufficient influence and power within the industry." -- Sensible Soccer creator Jon Hare. Thanks Joao via Computer and Video Games.