Seriously?? Yes, it has as big of a future now as it ever has in my opinion. I think people get caught up too much in one aspect of SEO that has worked in the past and only stick to that one thing way too much. If you are looking to build a site for the long haul and not just a site that will shoot up in the ranking and then trail off as more competition moves up, you should have a wide variety of links that look natural. This is not necessary in every niche but it is best practices. Get links from blogs, articles, videos, images, and a dozen other sources and you will be just fine. focus on good onpage optimization first and then move offpage. As more and more sites enter as competition in your niche good SEO will become even more valuable in the future as it is today. In one form or another it is here to stay.
Gleddy