> there will likely be people who want to play Final Fantasy 6 and Pokémon Silver for as long as computers are around
Is Final Fantasy 6 seeing a lot on new players today? Old games are played more by the people who enjoyed them when they were new. Even the landmark games are easily forgotten and younger players will never bother when they have so many modern choices.
The modern choices are accompanied by ads and gambling, to the point that it wouldn't be surprising if Final Fantasy 6 was seeing an uptick. Go enjoy your "modern" games all you like, but it doesn't always matter if a games community is growing, especially if it's not one requiring connectivity to blast ads and skins at people.
The Titan submersible implosion features a lot on HN, and almost nobody here built such a contraption, or took one to the bottom of the ocean, or imploded. Naming a gaming storefront which may sell an old game doesn't answer the question whether young people want to play it.
My reasonable baseline assumption is that almost no young player is going to jump to play a 30+ year old game. I'll be generous here and not name things like Frogger or worse, The Oregon Trail. But give a kid who has seen modern games a copy of Diablo, or SimCity 2000, or even newer things like or GoldenEye 007 or System Shock and watch the "excitement". And these are the heavy hitters.
A lot of these oldies didn't age well even for the people who loved them way back when. It's hard to get young players excited about them. Very few oldies could stand on their own today.
Is Final Fantasy 6 seeing a lot on new players today? Old games are played more by the people who enjoyed them when they were new. Even the landmark games are easily forgotten and younger players will never bother when they have so many modern choices.