It is a pretty rough state for games. There seems to be no real 'joy' in the creation process and the developer/community response is almost always cut throat with neither side being happy with the end result.
I would like to think all the corporations/companies in the gaming space aren't entirely blind to what players want, but that is looking like it's the case more and more in their corporate greed.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts and recapping the year and status of gaming! It was a great read with plenty of information.