@soft @Tengu honestly I could talk about this topic a lot 😅

most AAA game studios are making games primarily oriented around masculine power fantasies - either the Big Strong Guy With Gun/Sword, or (sometimes) the Conventionally Hot Scantily-Clad Girl With Gun/Sword. and when they try to develop games primarily for girls, because it's mostly men developing them, they tend to have this infantilizing view toward girls and women. so what comes out is typically something simplistic, easy, and/or overly cutesy.

and then when that game doesn't sell, they go right back to making male power fantasies, because they tried exactly one (1) thing, the hard-to-please females didn't like it, and now they're all out of ideas.

nevermind that, as OP suggested, Infinity Nikki proved that there's a market out there for high-budget games for girls and women if you listen to what girls and women actually want to play. hell, Final Fantasy X-2 proved that girls want to play big, complex, high-budget games all the way back in 2003, and very rarely has the idea been revisited since.