I'm of the younger generation and yet I know of Ultima and with the re-releases on GoG I'm sure RPG fanatics of this generation brought them just like I've played many games from the eighties despite not being around in that decade. I've only played Baldur's Gate recently just as I did with Divine Divinity (last year) and have only discovered the greatness of these classic RPG's.
Oh and "citing as inspiration" is kinda of saying that certain features are inspired by those games. In fact isn't the combat system in Original Sin supposed to be rather influenced by the action points system of Fallout? Meanwhile ALL Elder Scrolls games and the 2002 Arx Fatalis game (and pretty much everything else Arkane has done afterwards) have been influenced by Ultima Underworld which was one of the first First Person RPG's with non-linear exploration and gameplay.
Baldur's Gate has influenced tons of games. There was an RPG that came out earlier this year (Confrontation - developed by Cyanide) that was clearly influenced by Baldur's Gate. Most reviews even noted the similarities, however Confrontation was panned for it's terrible gameplay, camera, story and tons of bugs which wasn't surprising considering Cyanide (developers of The Game of Thrones game that released) are known for rushing games. Hell, I think they've actually released 4 RPG's this year along!!
