I personally think the boom in the '90s can never be replicated, the exploration and exploitation of 3D environments just opened up millions of possibilities to imaginative devs, and now all that's been done. There are interesting new tweaks to formats established back then coming out all the time, but it would be nigh on impossible to create something akin to the very first true FPS, the first 3rd person 3D adventure, the first cinematic survival horror, and so on. Only VR/AR can do something similar, invent totally new genres and ways of experiencing games, which is why I reckon we're in the midst of something (potentially) very special right now.
It's the next dimension, if you like - the simplest games of the early days perfected their core feature; pure addictive gameplay... then as the bits grew, like cells dividing, superlative 2D pixel background artwork, sprite animations and such became a big thing to wow players with... then 3D blew everyone into a whole new dimension. Although VR's been round the block before, it's the one and only thing that can hope to have the same
OMFG sheer-amazement impact as those previous big evolutionary steps, so this mid-2010s period I think will be considered an historically very notable time if just for that (provided it doesn't crash and burn with consumers).
Aside from VR though, the best you can really ask for are games introducing exciting new elements, rather than giving birth to an entire new movement. You can't re-invent the wheel, but you can improve tyres beyond the first wheel-pushers' wildest imaginations. And I think there have been many really cleverly-executed, intriguing gameplay elements explored within the past few years, some of them in games that aren't exactly gona go down as greats.
Two small examples of that from titles that I can enjoy, but that rightly have no chance of becoming especially acclaimed in the fullness of time, would be the Nemesis system in
Shadow of Mordor, and the remote hacking exploits in both of the
Watch Dogs' open worlds. None of these things really make headlines, and that illustrates how novel concepts are still being implemented in 'standard', non-vanguard games without people taking that much notice.
Those are obviously far from the strongest offerings of this era, which have each introduced their own novel elements, but in a far more accomplished overall package. I think time will treat the very cream of this era kindly, they'll be appreciated for expanding what games can be, as well as their sheer playability.
I'm not saying you're wrong here, by the way; I phrased it as a tentative question to everyone after all. But I honestly think this is a stronger time for videogames, and videogame innovation, than many would acknowledge; a creative boom time, as well as clearly a commercial boom time. First of all, for all the shite that we hate about this era, that's because videogames are more a licence to print money than ever, so all the greedy corner-cutting corporate twats have gotten heavily involved - it's not good, but they're ubiquitous annoying blood-sucking ticks on a very, very healthy beast. Secondly, more gamers are getting wise to that sort of crap than ever, and starting to demand better business practices, in mini-pockets of resistance all over the web - I guarantee you that previous generations of gamers would've fallen for the same old crap and still gladly handed over their money (the misconception that major games are more expensive to purchase now than they were in the distant past is quite amusing for someone who's been scrimping and shelling out since the early '90s). Third, there's not a time in their history when the majority of home videogame releases weren't uninspired knock-offs, blatant bandwagon-jumping cash-in attempts, fanbase-exploiting licenced junk, etc. There would be literally several thousand games considered as timeless masterpieces if previous eras were as fruitful as they seem in our minds (there are for some!). And that's coming from someone with an undying love for those bygone halcyon days, when everything felt so new. I seriously think many of us are just a little bit jaded now, can't quite see the excitement to be found in contemporary gaming until it slaps us in the face sometime. VR is a bloody great wet slap in the face right now, but even that incredibly has its miserable-faced detractors too.
Anyway, don't wanna hijack this beauty's thread too much with my rambling.
