Not sure why. Video games are a product of a culture, focusing on them tells you something about said particular culture.
Except more often than not academia focuses on the high echelons of culture, not on the trash. I mean, these are also products of a culture: porn magazines, junk food, wrestling, nascar racing, barbie toys, my little ponies etc.
For example, Romanian "canonical" writers (Eminescu, Creanga, Caragiale) have made a bunch of weird shit in their lifespans, like porn stories, political propaganda or sci-fi stories. Do you think those are the works studied and heavily discussed and taught in high school and college?
FUCK. NO. The total opposite in fact, everyone is ignoring them and dismissing them.
In more than a few months, any blockbustery movie or any video game you put on a pedestal and "analyze" will be gone from cultural consciousness, and those criticisms will look like nothing more than overthinking rants done by people with too much free time on their hands.
The most interesting aspect about Citizen Kane was that, people still actually talked about it the next year, then the year after that. Pretty much up until today. Your retarded pretentious shit about the touching story of Witcher and cultural relevance of Gone Home is forgotten in a week. Does anyone remember Spec Ops the Line? I thought so