My number one wish: To stop chasing after graphics, and embrace innovative and creative gameplay again. It makes no sense for these AAA developers to be investing so much into games that are inferior to products they made in a fraction of the time with far less resources. (I’m looking at you, Game Freak. And almost every first-party Sony studio.)

1. Helix decides to not have paid on-line. Nintendo follows suit, due to it being a just a small % of their profits. Sony being forced to follow through.

2. Some type of physical media going on. I am not a colectionist and I am not worried about preservation, so I don't care about key cards. I do care alot about not being able to lend and sell my games. The used market is a blessing and it must continue. Valve killed it on PC. Xbox is trying to kill it. Sony wants to kill it in the future and Nintendo is the only one who I can guarantee will have physical media on the supposed Switch 3.

3. End of loot boxes. Live services are here to stay and free to play with microtransaction is the model. But loot boxes are unnaceptable.

4. More AA games.

I'm good with what gaming is honestly. It's meant to entertain for a few hours a week and it does that, the games today can create basically any kind of scenario you can envision as a game designer I think and have ample amounts of realism or any other kind of style you want and be convincing. Any type of game you could possibly want to play is out there, there's retro style 2D indie games all the way up to big budget 3D open world titles and everything in between. Can't really complain too much about that. 

I don't think it needs to be much more. I think more accessible VR (the headset not being so bulky) would be the main thing I'd add, VR is legitimately mind blowing and an actual step forward but it's very cumbersome still to use.

Smaller games. I am tired of everything being 50+ hours.

I take a grim, fatalist view. I don't think there is a future without AI. And I believe it'll happen, rather quickly. First, they'll use it to help them code. Then they will use it to story-board in places they're struggling with. Then they use let it aid in all story elements and do all the coding. And finally, it'll just be a prompt to make something that sells.

So I've pretty much let go. I have my Atari 2600 all the up to PS5. I have enough games for all those systems to last an entire human lifespan. I'm still saddened by it all, but I'm good.

Less focus on trying to make graphics hyper realistic.

Hologram and VR like "Ready Player One and Sword Art Online". 2050++ ?

1) Physical media still being supported.
2) Affordable hardware. Please no $1000 consoles.
3) Shorter games filled with less bloat.
4) Physical media still being supported.
5) Graphics focused on more minor touch-ups like better draw distance/less "popping," less obvious clipping, better texture work (some textures still look like shit up close) and just sticking to a 4K/60fps maximum target because we don't need anything more than that. Maybe ray-tracing for lighting & reflections if it doesn't cost too much money and computational resources. There's plenty of polygons already, and plenty of games with great lighting.
6) Less focus on the GAAS goldrush and more investment in single-player experiences.
7) Less aggressive monetization, esp. in full-price games. Let players unlock stuff through regular gameplay without encouraging spending money (e.g., no ridiculous grinding or randomization). Worked fine for Halo 3. Have paying for cosmetics be a shortcut for those too lazy to bother unlocking certain trophies/achievements, completing certain in-game tasks, etc.
8) Did I mention physical media still being supported?

A future where we got games looking like Mina the Hollower, Pokémon HGSS, Mega Man 9, or Sonic Mania on a regular basis would genuinely be the best move forward for the industry. Easy profit, no risk, so companies could pump them out no problem. Low cost would also mean no need to compensate for complications such as AI bubbles sending prices through the ceiling. We may even start seeing regular discounts/sales, keeping the barrier to entry for gaming nice and low.

I genuinely have to ask: Why isn't there a modern handheld/console/hybrid system with specs similar to that of a supped-up DS/SNES which can sell at a low cost. Indie devs and AA/AAA studios could pump low-cost games on... That just screams runaway success to me— the commonman doesn't care about seeing every strain of hair on Cloud's head. Simply look at the GameBoy OG/Color/Advanced, DS, 3DS, and even to an extent the Nintendo Switch 1. Far inferior technology for their time, but people ate it up because the games were good fun.

Jack Handy, I've got a question for you: As somebody who has almost exclusively played games from SNES-and-onward, what games do you most strongly recommend from 2600/NES/GameBoy? I genuinely have never been able to resonate with these games... what about them does it for you? Reveal to me the secret to enjoying these old-school arcade games!