RetroGaming

For me, the cutoff is with the introduction of HDMI. The Wii is the final retro console, and the 360 and Playstation despite being concurrent with the Wii are the start of the second age. The video format isn't actually the cause so much as it's emblemic- the Wii was one last hurrah for colorful arcade-y games while the PS360 really calcified the modern cinematic RPG FPS model that rules AAA single-player games to this day. That was also the first generation where nostalgia became a moneymaker, with things like the wiiware Mega Man games. Before that, nods to classic games weren't uncommon, but this was the start of games whose entire point was to be a nod