Open Game Art
opengameart.org
opengameart.org
Anecdotal evidence, but I saw an asset I recognized from a AAA game on there years ago. I'd be a little careful using the more obscure assets for a commercial project.
1) sometimes things that are packs are uploaded as separate assets, so you can have few pages of art dump from some open source game project
2) some low-effort assets should be removed or put into some kind of staging area. By low effort I mean people using the MS Paint spray to paint some white dots on black background and call it "starry background", or some basic Perlin noise with colours pushed as "some colorful abstract background, maybe someone will find this useful".
To me it is really strange that video game as a new medium for art has not taken more traction yet. Every ingredient seems to be there for the recipe: novelty of the medium, specific set of constraints that need to be overcome, ability for a single person to create their vision, etc.
I know some of them are already, e.g. Machinarium, but is still marginal it's it not?
Once could hypothesise that when non-gamers think of games, they think of the most popular games, which means the most commercially viable. I would equate it to thinking of advertising illustration or graphic design when talking about "visual art".
Of course, people often think games should be fun in some way, so the kookier games that are artistic expressions might not become popular, because people don't want to experience those works.
Some examples of games I consider arty:
- Moirai [0]
- Sisters of the Amniotic Lens [1]
- Gone home [2]
- The Stanley Parable [3]
[0] http://store.steampowered.com/app/496920/
[1] http://store.steampowered.com/app/287140/