I am reminded of a recent video by Yahtzee Croshaw (Zero Punctuation guy), who compared the current state of the industry to where film was in the mid-to-late 20th century, with their overinflated budgets and a focus on making things bigger and more spectacular, but not necessarily better. He theorised in that video, and I agreed, that in the future we are likely to see a ditching of the massive open-world with incredible graphics, and in its place we will see smaller games that are more focused and have tighter design principles.

The general public is becoming tired of massive, open world "live service" games with microtransactions. The formula is being run into the ground. While we will still see open world games, and ongoing, evolving games, and certainly microtransactions, I am convinced the "formula" is dying. Which at this point can only be a good thing. Perhaps there will be a resurgence of the "AA" studios that used to be far more common? Budgets larger than most indie developers can afford, but also not on the scale of tens of millions, if not hundreds of millions, that AAA games get. Yes, those games weren't always good, but there was usually at least an attempt at making something fun. AAA gaming feels like it is losing the understanding of how to make something fun.