1. The spirit of indie game development has come back through Steam, Kickstarter, etc.
In the past when the industry was young and there were no big companies yet, almost every game developer would have been considered an indie dev by today's definition. Unlike the PS1/N64 and PS2/Xbox eras where most small devs were in the hands of big companies, right now going indie has become viable. Small studios are able to flourish like the creators of Braid, LIMBO, Minecraft, etc. Veterans are able to do what they truly want (former Rare developers transformed to Playtonic Games, the remnants of CRPG developers, etc.)
2. No longer is game development exclusive to programmers and professionals through software geared towards students like Autodesk Maya/3DS Max, Blender 3D, Pixologic Sculptris, GIMP, The Foundry Nuke, Unity 5, Unreal Engine 4, MuseScore, etc.
People here know Unity and Unreal but have you heard of Maya, 3DS Max, Sculptris, Nuke, GIMP, MuseScore, etc.? All of these are free for non-commercial purposes and can be learned by anyone. All of these contribute to learning game development (art, music, game design). This level of openness of game development is unprecedented. This enables young talent to freely develop more easily.
3. The internet exists
When internet was young not many people got to use it. Internet is the place of communication and exchange of information. If you want to learn anything about game development, lots of forums/communities exist to help. If you want to check reviews of a specific game lots of sites and user reviews exist. The latest news, videos, etc. can be digested. Just imagine today without internet, it's impossible.
The most important thing to remember is this: The level of openness heightens the ratio of good games and bad games. Right now, there are more mediocre games. But there are also more great games to play than in the past even though they might not be on the level of ground-breaking games of the past. Denying this is being blinded by nostalgia. When the game industry was young, innovations being abundant was natural because everything was new. Right now, the game industry is still considered young and new unlike the film industry. It will continue to evolve and some are saying that the game industry is following on the footsteps of the film industry in its evolution.
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