I would disagree about console gaming. A stretch this long happened before between the original NES and the SNES, as well as the original Gameboy and a more powerful version. From then on there was the 4 year like clockwork release of a new console system from every major manufacturer. In this cycle, none have any definite release date, stretching this generation to 8 or 9 years.
While I agree games propel hardware forward, I believe it's the combination of a graphics plateau, diversification in gaming, and the end of the free ride on Moore's Law, which the article pointed out. This generation of AAA games run arguably the prettiest graphics ever seen. But this comes at a cost of complexity and sheer hard work to build the environment and models, without the wow factor of a major leap in graphics quality. Crysis is still the Gold Standard in what gaming graphics can do, and that was released five years ago.
We are also seeing a large and unique divergence in gaming in the form of indie titles. Indie games, by their nature, could never compete pound-for-pound on the graphics of AAA games. They made up for this in experimental gameplay and embracing a unique graphics style. Before now it was very difficult to get an indie game exposure and the art of building said game was difficult. Now the game development toolchain has improved by orders of magnitude, and the advent of app stores on tablets and smart phones makes distribution and monetization much easier. Tablets and smartphones likewise bifurcated gaming. Tablets couldn't render the graphics or use the raw computational power found in the latest PC and console titles. This made them a natural home to indie titles.
There is also something to be said about Zynga, Facebook, and the whole crop of casual games that sprung up in the last five years. Suddenly the gaming market had many more diverse demographics they could effectively target. It's no longer the 18-25 year old male that was the prime gaming market. These titles don't need the raw computational power of next-gen consoles or the latest PC hardware. They run fine even on netbooks and tablets.
In all, I do believe that gaming was a primary driving factor in hardware development. In recent years video games have become a much more diverse ecosystem, many of which don't require the raw hardware power.
The gap between the NES and SNES was 5 years, the XBox 360 has been out for 7 - I think it's fair to say this is an unusually large wait for the next gen.
I don't know how you can say that this generation of AAA games is the prettiest ever seen, and also say that Crysis is the gold standard - this is kind of my point really, things have stagnated. Games run faster and faster on "current midrange hardware" (however you care to define that) but aren't really looking much better.
Your points on the video game market massively diversifying are extremely valid though, it's true that the disposable income upgrade-chasing 20-something is no longer the most luctrative or important demographic.
I'm not totally sure that the diversification of video games is to blame. For every Duke Nukem, DOOM, and Quake, there where equally popular and less taxing games like SimCity and RollerCoaster Tycoon that have been players in the gaming world that did not push hardware forward.
Additionally, I very much take issue with your statement that Crysis, a game released in 2007 is still the "standard" for graphics intensive games.
The games that are pushing the bounds of PC hardware are games like [1]The Witcher 2, games which are huge improvements on [2]Crysis.
While I agree games propel hardware forward, I believe it's the combination of a graphics plateau, diversification in gaming, and the end of the free ride on Moore's Law, which the article pointed out. This generation of AAA games run arguably the prettiest graphics ever seen. But this comes at a cost of complexity and sheer hard work to build the environment and models, without the wow factor of a major leap in graphics quality. Crysis is still the Gold Standard in what gaming graphics can do, and that was released five years ago.
We are also seeing a large and unique divergence in gaming in the form of indie titles. Indie games, by their nature, could never compete pound-for-pound on the graphics of AAA games. They made up for this in experimental gameplay and embracing a unique graphics style. Before now it was very difficult to get an indie game exposure and the art of building said game was difficult. Now the game development toolchain has improved by orders of magnitude, and the advent of app stores on tablets and smart phones makes distribution and monetization much easier. Tablets and smartphones likewise bifurcated gaming. Tablets couldn't render the graphics or use the raw computational power found in the latest PC and console titles. This made them a natural home to indie titles.
There is also something to be said about Zynga, Facebook, and the whole crop of casual games that sprung up in the last five years. Suddenly the gaming market had many more diverse demographics they could effectively target. It's no longer the 18-25 year old male that was the prime gaming market. These titles don't need the raw computational power of next-gen consoles or the latest PC hardware. They run fine even on netbooks and tablets.
In all, I do believe that gaming was a primary driving factor in hardware development. In recent years video games have become a much more diverse ecosystem, many of which don't require the raw hardware power.