All of this is true. I'd add to this by saying that as depressing as a million COD clones is, see it as a maturing of the industry, and as a positive thing. Most movies are trash, most TV is trash, most music is trash, most books are trash^, and now-- congratulations-- most games are trash too. All that means is that the industry is more popular and catering to lots of audiences. Amazing stuff still gets made on the periphery, just like every other medium.

^Of course there are more good books than there are good games or movies etc, but that medium has had thousands of years to produce winners and forget the bad apples. If you ignore the accumulated history of books you'll see that the top selling books are, in order: Romance novels (especially now with eBooks as people feel less embarrassed about buying them), self-help books, and then the popular trash you actually see advertised everywhere (Harry Potter, Twilight, 50 Shades of Grey etc)