Xiiram

To answer either video games are art or not. We must know what art is in the first place; Art was originally anything made by humans, like food, clothes, buildings, fighting, harvest, and other random stuff. Nowadays art is 'something' someone made and someone else thought was 'art'.

How so?

Well, you can call yourself an artist as much as you want, but your work won’t be art until someone else calls it art. You can paint as good as DaVinci or Picasso, but a lot of people also does and they are not even close to them. It's not a matter of technique, it's not a matter creativity, it is all reputation. And a bit of luck, of course.

Now then, art is not something you make, but something other recognize as such, so either a game is art or not is already answered. You can make a video game to be acclaimed as art, your goal was recognition, or you can make a videogame to earn money, your goal was profit.

Not all video games are art, and not all videogames are for profit and the fact that you made a videogame to be art doesn’t mean you can't profit of it, or the fact that you made a videogame to earn money doesn't mean it won’t become art.

How so?

Because you don’t decide if its art or not, someone else does.