@Cyan There's always a point where people eventually tire of a formula, or that formula becomes a niche. There are lots of boomer shooter indie games that replicate that Doom/Doom2/Duke Nukem 3D era. Trying to make a modern Halo game that plays like Halo 2/3 would be a huge mistake. Someone could probably make that game for that audience, but it couldn't be a AAA huge budget game. Halo 4/5 changed out of necessity. Unfortunately they did a mediocre job. I would say they didn't change nearly enough. They changed only a little. Halo Infinite was an attempt to just go back to basics, and it's an incredibly uninspiring game that didn't resonate. That's why I'd rather see 343 make something totally different. They fell behind on tech, which they can maybe solve with the UE switch, but ultimately they lacked the creativity and the ... bravery? ... to reinvent Halo. Just too afraid to upset their vocal middle-aged fans, and too limited in vision for the game. I think unsaddling themselves from expectations would lead to much better games.
Halo Infinite added new things, though not much. Still, the problem is that save points system and other issues. Maybe the whole series became tiring, the story (Cortana gone and overly emotional stuff), and so on.
There isn't a big evolution between Halo 1 and 2, or 3, and much less with Halo Reach or even ODST, yet they were a critics success 'cos they were soooooo good.
Doom evolved much more, in fact to the point that the new games from Doom 3 on aren't like the original Doom 1 -and 2- at all, 2D vs3D aside.
As of recently I completed Divinity Original Sin 2 using a very complex mod, or Divinity Original Sin Enhanced Edition with a crazy difficult mod, I got to learn to play Souls-like games with Elden Ring, and so on and so forth.
It's not that people don't want new experiences. But I'd buy first day a new Doom based on Doom 1 and 2 original gameplay, just like I pre-purchased RE4 and System Shock.
Kinda miss the simple shotgun in Doom 1 -my fav weapon to use-, where you spaced the shots and everything was very methodical, the maps were memorable and easy to learn, the traps and the colour keys system to open doors. I am glad the color keys kinda returned in Doom Eternal, but while decent games, imho they aren't close to the classical Doom -plus doom guy being a demigod just doesn't sit well with me-.