I agree, but no-one was really making the AAA distinction I was referring to above before the late 1990s – before then the budgets and performance expectations were roughly level for most games (unless associated with an existing non-home or movie/TV franchise). From the beginning of that category and a bit earlier, though, the industry decided to cater to an adolescent boy’s mentality when developing and selling blockbuster big-budget games.
Sexism was still present in the video game and general tech industry (as I discussed the first time a disingenuous attempt was made by codinghorror to pin the blame for the culture primarily on the medium of games) but they weren’t really making the game category distinctions (and associated marketing decisions) we do now.
