What would you say?

I’d say seeing games hit +300M sales figures is definitely up there, as well as Nintendo’s follow up to Wii U going on to outsell DS without a single price cut is big. Though to be honest? Call me crazy… but I’d say seeing an Animal Crossing game receive the sales figures similar to that of Wii Sports would be my pick. Seeing how the franchise had performed prior to the NS1 generation, never could I have imagined an Animal Crossing game ever coming close to the sales figures of what was (at the time of 2016) the best selling games of all time, Wii Sports.

Emulation. Loads upon loads of reasons. But I find myself using emulation more than buying new games. Native PC support, 4k Texture packs, Mame support continues to improve, Bloodborne, etc.

On the hardware side, I would say he Switch, especially in Japan. Many thought that nothing could beat the DS total sales numbers in Japan anymore due to the rise of smartphone gaming and demographics, but the Switch not only beat the DS there, it obliterated it's numbers, to the point that soon the only thing the Switch can be measured to over in Japan is DS+Wii combined sales numbers, which is absolutely crazy.

On the software side, the fact that AAA publishers are still a thing after their repeated massive blunders that cost them hundreds of millions.

Yeah, Nintendo having 9 games on Switch selling over 20m has got to be up there. If you had told me ten years ago that a Zelda game would sell more than a new Pokemon I would have LOL-ed.

On the negative side, I'd say the damn price increases for consoles. If you had told me ten years ago that Playstation and Xbox would go up by $150 several years later I would have ROFL-ed.

I can think of 3 things that really surprised me:

1) Valve not only going BACK to Half-Life after 13 years, which was a meme at that point, but making it a VR game. And not only making it arguably the best VR game ever, but still somehow having that amazing gameplay and storytelling that Half-Life became known for.

2) Valve going all in on hardware. 10 years ago, Valve floundered in their initial endeavor with Steam Machines and the original Steam Controller, and moderate success with a VR headset in the Index. Years later, they shocked us with the Steam Deck. A massive surprise and one of the most innovative pieces of tech we had seen in a long time. Several years later, Valve continued to add hardware with a console-like desktop, a new VR headset, and a new Steam Controller. Other than the controller, all running on the same OS that Valve has been iterating on for years now. And Valve championing the now otherworldly concept of you owning the tech you buy.

3) Xbox going third-party. Xbox's buying the publishers really caught the magnifying glass of Microsoft's higher-ups. Most notably Satya Nadella and their CFO Amy Hood. With impossible financial goals after the purchases, Xbox deciding to completely open up their semi-closed walled garden sent shockwaves to the point where we now see the big 3 of Halo, Gears, and Forza on PlayStation, and I imagine at some point, the Switch 2. Don't know how things will change under the new leadership, but that was still shocking to see regardless.

Xbox putting their games on PlayStation.

Sony E3 2016 just squeeks in the past decade, with the announcements of Last Guardian, FF VII Remake and Shenmue 3 all being almost mythical titles for years before that show.

1.- Switch, and everything involving it
2.- Xbox pivoting away from traditional console gaming - and putting their games on PS
3.- My nephew beating me for the first time ever in Mario Kart 8D. I wasnt even trying to let him win.

Id say those 3 are pretty much the big events of the decade.

The wholesale adoption of AI.

It's really down to two.
1. AI adoption and slop.
2. Price increases for hardware and accessories over time. Not even maintaining the price, mind you, but price increases. There is almost no reality where I could fathom Switch being so expensive this far into its life and after such high sales figures. And $900 for PS5 Pro when it launched at $700? What the frack?

Price increases.
2013 the PS4 was released for £349. I grabbed a PS4 slim 3 years later during 2016 for under £200. This was normal.
Fast forward to 2020. The PS5 was released for £449. 6 years later the price gone up and not down.