I think a lot of the indie games that have come out the in past several years have been at least interesting and in some cases, innovative. Look at those like world of goo, minecraft, braid, space chem, sanctum, etc.
In a market where hardcore gamers know how to circumvent paying, it's difficult to get 'gamer' games to recoup the resources that went into making them.<p>Coincidentally, hardcore gamers are the types who are generally more open to new gameplay mechanics. That's not to say you can't get a new concept through to the masses, but typically there's only a handful of new concepts that can be expected to gain traction a year. When you think about this in relation to other entertainment mediums (e.g. Movies, Music) that's not too bad.<p>As for the rest of the game fairing public, let's call them casuals, or people who don't typically know how to pirate. They would prefer to just play something quick and familiar. Thus many developers begin to cater their wares to what the public is willing to consume.<p>Now, to counter all this, there is real innovation happening on the mobile platforms. It's just not being covered very well.
There will always be imitation, but to me the innovation going on right now is staggering. Touch screens are still fairly recent, and so many games have been created to take advantage of the new controls like fruit ninja for instance. And it's not just big players anymore, but thanks to app markets, anybody can publish and have friends play their games. Nintendo Wii is also fairly recent. I spent last weekend at a party playing Just Dance with friends - something innovative, but also just another link in the chain of gaming evolution - PaRappa, DDR, Guitar Hero, etc.. The Sony Vita is just about to be released and the thing has a full touch screen on it's back side. 3DS, Wii U - I still dont get how the tablet as a controller for a console is going to work, but at least their innovating.. and how about that minecraft innovative yet evolved ;)
The barrier to entry to getting a game published developed and published with a decent chance at significant exposure is much lower than it was in the past. More games are getting made, many more. That means more copycats. It also means more innovation. I'm not too worried about it.
innovation is hard and high risk. Franchises sell predictably. blasting out Call Of Duty 17 is a matter of staffing a bunch of artists for less money than you will bring in.<p>Same thing for movies, and books, and music, and basically every big company business model ever.