Pronounced surrealism in games - such as Minecraft, Splatoon, Skylanders, and the Mario series clearly does have a place in the industry at the moment. Many awesome games exist and are being worked on that are in that style, and even some of which that seem highly focused on being art pieces (Yarn Yoshi is an experiment in what extremities of adorable that humans can survive). However outside of some classic characters, rarified experiments, and indie titles it wouldn't be too unfair to say that the industry isn't nearly as into surrealism as it once was.
Obviously this has a lot to do with the fact they're no longer being forced into it, and that is great. But will their freedom and history of having to be atleast a little surreal result in the permanent dominance of attempts at realism? Or will the current rush end and result in the re-diversification of the industry? Could we even find the industry swinging between the two over generations?
