SE used to lead the pack in innovation back in the day. Now in so many ways, in and out of games, they are playing catch up and still cannot do things that other games and companies have been doing for a decade. It's kindda sad tbh.

I really think it changed, like it does in so many industries, when the business people overtook the people who genuinely loved gaming. Now it feels like its about just profit instead of design, games and everything that goes along with it. As a designer I can say, very few companies care about innovative or good design. They want max profits (for max bonuses) and want to appeal to the most people, so they keep it as simple and lackluster as possible. Which usually does not result in anything too great.

Do it cheap, do it easy, do it fast.