problem is pc gaming never died and has been healthy all along but when retailers stopped selling cause they made more profits with consoles or we stopped buying. the industry or more like the suits and media made a native that pc gaming died. we just went to the guy that respected us and now he has a dragons hord of wealth and moved in beating the consoles at their own game by respecting is with an open platform.
also a big thing was the rapid openings of malls in the 80s and 90s. honestly they opened too many of them then just kind of limped along as it was too hard to close and Sears kinda funded them till their death.