Although I'm not a game developer anymore (I've done some in the past) I still have hard time believing this sentiment to be true, even today. Game development is interdisciplinary - code, art, design, and audio all matter. But code is definitely not less important than in other software fields; it's just that games also need those other disciplines to succeed.
Yes, modern game engines abstract away low-level code and many successful indie games have simple mechanics but great art/design, still, code remains one of the most important aspects of a good game. Physics, collision detection, rendering and graphics optimization, network for multiplayer, AI for NPCs and procedural generation, performance optimization, state management, input handling - all that still needs code.