It's affecting the industry now, ever heard the term "We're trying for the CoD audience", or "We're trying to streamline to achieve a larger audience", or "We're expanding out target audience".
Call of Duty.
Thanks to it, companies have realised the absurd amount of money to be made in the casual market, why pander towards a market that thinks about what its doing, when there's a market that'll buy your game no matter what you change?
Not only that, but this market will also buy whatever DLC you spew out as well at whatever price you spew it out. Four maps for fifteen pounds? Ridiculous. Not long ago you could have bought an entire expansion pack for less than that.
So many games have been destroyed by this casualisation it is disgusting.
Battlefield, Supreme Commander, Dragon Age, Skyrim, Hitman, Red Alert, SimCity, Halo, Crysis, Fight Simulators, Metal Gear Solid, Dead Rising, Ace Combat, I could go on.
We don't have to buy it now, millions are going to anyway and as long as they do, the industry will deteriorate for those who actually care about it.