This is something I thought about for a while now, the bigger any industry gets the more it has to splinter, you simply can't expect one studio to create all the high end elements that we see in a single game. The big boys will eventually be buying engines to perhaps create organic libraries of 3d objects, engines to create animations and physics and AI of course there is the fear of repetitive elements spread through different games, yet I believe with the power and exapanisve nature of technology there will be enough there to eventually create alot of self altering/morphing, or simply user moldable content. For example would you really notice if some of the trees in Central Park in Spirderman 3 were the same as some of the trees as in Oblivion? Probably not as long as specific detail was paid to elements of the city, and Oblivion world that distguinshed it from all other games. Yet there will be a point where a middleware company can simply sell an insanely realitistc model of all of New York City, and leave options to alter the model for a developer. Why should 2 different developers spend money to create 2 insanely realistic models of new York, when they could buy it much cheaper and focus on great gameplay, and simply change key elements? Personally at that point I'm sure we'll notice the copying, but lets face it, 100's of movies are filmed in New York are we complaining about it? The same with physics engines, they are thriving to attain to realism, eventually when it's darn close will we complain? 100's of movies use the same physics engine(that being called real life) we don't complain about that. Again as long as these elements free the developer to create better games, I don't think it would hurt the industry to have middleware standards.
What would hurt this industry more is every developer losing money developing expensive huge beautiful games that might lack good gameplay simply because it was over looked. Personally I think the Spiderman franhise is already a victim of that, as the latest version was far worse then last gen's offerings.
