I think the Gaming Industry will definitely get there, with the same growing pains and frgmentation that all art and/as entertainment forms have eventually evolved through.
I think you are right in drawing direct parallels with the Gaming, Music, and Film/TV fields; as you have both alluded, [I know, incredibly worn and old discussion point follows] they are all facing the same kind of heavy pressure to create product that is profitable and easily/cheaply marketed, rather than artistically or experientially designed. Performers and Composers push for new artistic works of merit to be performed; the management simply says "we need to fill seats. We are playing Brahms and Beethoven again. Sit down and shut up. Or do you want to have no orchestra left?". Widespread availability of the MasterWorks is wonderful, but when reliance on the tried-and-true trumps originality and artistic exploration, fields stagnate, loose favor and flavor, and die out (ok, so perhaps it would not be a good idea to perform a full season of Cage, Glass, and Ives, with Adams and Carter thrown in, but you get my point I'm sure
).
One of the side-effects (so to speak) of the music recording/distribution "revolution" is the fragmentation of audience. On the one hand, the "mass-market" pushes the industry to restrict activity to the lowest common denominator (Brittany Spears, et. al.); on the other hand, anyone with a truly great sound can begin a solid following and make an o.k. living by net-broadcast and big word of mouth on the Internet (sorry, I know it is happening, but would have to search for specifics).
Audiences know this. If they don't see/hear what they want, they have an ever-expanding set of choices (e.g. Cable TV). The more this "choice" idea takes form, the more likely it is that disenfranchised audiences will seek or force those new opportunities along (can you say X-Games on ESPN? The Sci-Fi Channel? How about the very existance of modding communities for such mainstream games as MechWarrior 4 or Quake?).
For the "engineer/artist/writer", this means less of a chance to make the huge bucks, unless they are assimilated (and usually destroyed) by the Mainstream. It does, however, provide more and more opportunity to be taken seriously without Big Bucks Studio/Corporate backing; I am confident TBH falls in an "Independent Film" category that will ultimately prove extremely successful. I don't see the $$$$$ flowing into Art Film venues, Orchestra Halls, or Opera Houses each night, but I do see $$ (which, let's face it, is the grease that keeps artistic/engineering endeavors from entropy).
And (back to music, which I know, and away from all this speculation about industries I know little of), from an artistic point of view, if any of us were really in it completely for the steady, relatively non-risky cash, we would be involved in the creation of clones of existing successful products, instead of creating something better. I would be pushing to play movie music nights with performing clowns and "Best-Of-The -Best moments of the Masters ReMix" (for the ultimate musical expression of this, see Nicole Kidman in the ReMix version of Moulin Rouge - a fun, completely "lifted" rip-off and remix of 3 centuries of artistic expression, wrapped up in a sexy mass-market package and broadcast directly into the cultural mainstream).