In 2011 a little game called Minecraft got released and seemingly this game never dies. The game definitely fell into obscurity multiple times but it seems like it always bounces back to its feet. Now why is that? Mainly because of the seemingly never aging graphics, the simple and easy to learn controls, the creativity it gives its players. And this creativity never ends due to Minecraft having a community of players who can create mods and change to game in every possible way.
Mincraft works because of its simplicity and that is also the main reason why people forget about it and then after months or years of not thinking about it you suddenly have the urge to go back to it.
The creators of minecraft are definitely not blind to this either. They help to keep it alive because they keep adding and keep updating it. But they never sacrifice its simplicity.
When you ask someone about their favorite video games the answer you'll most likely get is not going to be the game that got released one or two weeks ago. The game titles you'll properly gonna hear are Assassin's creed, Portal 1&2, Dark Souls, The Witcher, Tomb Raider and many more. And even though those games do not really have a lot in common there is one thing that does tie them together, and that are the release dates. All those games came out between 2001 and 2011.
One of the many reasons why games that came out around that time are so remembered is most likely because of the age group that played them and in extension nostalgia. People that played those games were most likely in their teenage years. So they grew up with those games and now that those players are in their late 20s early 30. They fondly look back at those childhood memories.