PROS
A flourishing online indy scene has been able to take root via online distribution systems like Steam which allows consumers to experience unique games and scenarios they never could have imagined.
Graphics are continuing to evolve and pushing the boundaries on how 'real' the visuals can get.
Old school classics are being revived and given exposure to a new young audience, who can get a taste on what top-tier gaming was back in the day. Good Old Games is the paragon of this phenomenon because the games they offer are both complete and DRM free for maximum consumer benefit.
Video game narratives are going places and hitting subjects movies cannot. Particularly skilled storytellers can give players an emotional moving experience in ways never imagined before.
Digital distribution is getting new games and content out to consumers quicker and at a lower price point than in the past.
Mobile gaming is making strides toward a new genre and visually are starting to resemble 16-bit old school games.
The rise of Youtube Let's Plays and critics like Total Biscuit or Angry Joe giving their honest critiques as to whether a game is even worth looking at or should be scorned and not given so much as a cursory rental.
CONS
Sturgeon's Law plagues the indy scene like a crippling cancer. For every Journey there's a Dear Esther; DayZ gets WarZ (or Infestation: Survivor Stories.) Absolute garbage like Slaughtering Grounds, Air Control, or Guise of the Wolf is allowed to pollute the scene with their content and lash out like children when people shit on their games because they're so terrible. This does extensive damage to the indy scene and forces the good games to try even harder to stand out because they're drowning in the wannabe filth. And every so often you get narcissists like Phil Fish who turn into industry pariahs by virtue of their fragile egos and grossly overestimated unwarranted self-importance.
Graphics are limited by technology. We may be in a graphical boom period, but eventually things will give way and we'll experience another technical ceiling like we did in the 2000s when PC gaming was unable to provide that Hi-Fi experience to prove its superiority over consoles. Thus we should expect another period of PC stagnation where consoles again catch up to PCs and the medium starts to fall into decline. It may not happen for years yet, but I do think it will happen again eventually.
Early Access and pre-ordering give AAA gaming an excuse to quit trying halfway through development and execs expect gamers to lap it up with a smile while asking for more. EA and Ubisoft in particular have pretty much given up on developing and releasing complete games.
HD re-releases are often a cash-in trap by AAA rights holders of old IPs who just dump off the old games with 16:9 resolution options and nothing else. Sometimes they don't even fix bugs present in the old games' code.
Video game narrative and story is still going through a tough adolescence and will still need many more years of development before games can truly be taken seriously as a medium able to deliver powerful, moving stories by the mainstream. Especially when brainless insipid shooters like CoD keep getting the best sales figures every year.
Mobile gaming is riddled with examples of Murphy's Law. Murphy's Law says "If something can be used or done a right way and a wrong way, and the wrong way will lead to catastrophe, it will be used or done the wrong way." This is why we have cow-clicker 'whale' games like Final Fantasy ATB and Dungeon Keeper Mobile. These things are less games and more ponzi schemes rigged to steal as much money as possible out of consumers. It's a disgusting tactic and AAA publishers who endorse and engage in such practices deserve not only scorn but all out boycott and dissolution of their mobile branches.
Publishing has devolved into a hype and marketing monster run rampant. Marketing campaigns are being given more money than the base budget of the game itself and the ballooning cost results in impossible sales expectations which means no AAA game can actually make a profit unless it's a series with a cult of personality like Madden or COD.
Finally, there's Nintendo's tone deaf attempts to steal money from the pockets of youtube content producers who dare to make videos about their games. Nintendo, and it's cult of ass-kissers and defenders, are going to learn a very hard lesson about the importance of letting youtube critics do their thing unmolested because less people showcasing Nintendo content will lead to an inevitable drop in their revenue. When a high profile critic refuses to touch a Nintendo game, their fans and followers will likely follow suit.
