/vr/ - Retro Games

These shitty threads never end, but might as well give my two cents.
Retro refers to an aesthetic of a certain time period. In 50 years, retro cars will still be cars with certain design aspects in them that were common at the time. This is because we, in the current time, have set a standard for retro cars. Same thing with retro diners, the aesthetic will be the same regardless of how much time passes.
Retro video games will remain with the time period of 1999 and before simply because that is where video games shared the most in common with each other aesthetically, and simply because the medium has not been around relatively long as say, literature or film. You do not hear people refer to 80s or 90s films as retro because when films first came out, they had an aesthetic that stood out from their successors. As soon as film advanced in how they were created, the idea of the retro film was established because of the advancement of film. There may be different tropes in terms of say, writing, from 70s and 2010 films, but they still differ far too much from the previously established tag of "retro" given to films of the previous era. This applies to video games as well, arguably after 1999 is when technology began advancing the most in such a manner that affected the aesthetic of video games.
TL;DR: 6th gen has more in common with its successors than its predecessors because it is arguably where technological advancements has affected vidya to the point of aesthetic changes not present in previous generations.