VR (Again)
Like esports, Virtual Reality has had its fair share of false starts, but found a solid platform again this decade. With the pieces in place now, there's some hope that our dreams of disappearing inside game worlds could become (affordably) real soon. Big experiences outside the home are already taking place in specially built VR theme parks, adding to the ubiquity of the platform to help bring it to most consumer faces soon. There's just one complicating factor at the moment, but even that should be a thing of the past soon...
Death of the Platform
Probably the most exciting trend we've seen throughout this decade is the slow merging of platforms. Sony's Cross-buy/Cross-play/Cross-save features opened a window where our handheld and home consoles no longer needed separate ecosystems or stores or save states. The Switch came along to take that to its logical conclusion of being both the home console and the handheld, but it also helped break down other barrier, the big ones. Cross-platform is increasingly common for third-party online games now, and even Sony is giving in to pressure from consumers to play with their gamer brethren on other consoles. With Microsoft confirming Game Pass coming to Nintendo Switch, there's not long before we throw off the shackles of the console wars and become one big happy singularity. Join the One-ness. It's warm here.
