[jibo]

maybe you should ask to formers employees of Sierra-Dynamix/MicroProse/Origin/Rowan-Empire/Jane's-EA/DID-Rage/MS Games Studios (CFS)
how roomy the niche was
With a shrinking pc market, a ongoing crisis, the rise of no brainer games etc ...
It was hard for everybody, only FPS really made it through.
The different genres are slowly crawling back (apart sub-sim which of course remains underwater) so the youth is progressively rediscovering the joy of a real rewarding game. (other rewards than angry bird stars).

It's nice to see that some good old studios are still in the place (codemasters, the creative assembly, Bioware ...)
There is also a trend of successful revivals (mass effect, soon command and conquer ...)
I was reading a interview of the Japanese lead programmer of Final Fantasy series he said the gameplay hasn't change in 10 years, eventually the market is rebuilding itself on the same basis.
And IL2 will shine for 20 years, can't you hear it approaching, trutrutrutthhhffffffffffff