Special Note: Please note that this scenario is meant to be read as entertainment, not as an accurate prediction of the future. Also note that the viewpoints and opinions that may come across in this scenario are not necessarily the viewpoints and opinions of the author.
Five years into the Gaming Depression, people will start to buy more manga and watch more anime. Ten years into the Gaming Depression, most former gamers finally wisen up and find girlfriends/boyfriends. Fifteen years into the Gaming Depression, situation comedies on television make a short but memorable comeback with the youth audiences.
What people will do[]
With every new video game sequel playing like its predecessor, are we heading towards an economic video game depression?
Our children will get their kicks adding up numbers on their calculators, trying to find funny sounding names in the local phone book, playing board games like The Game of Life, and a World War III game that has the Russian-American-EU forces fighting against the Chinese-Indian forces. The closest thing to MLB 38: The Show after the Gaming Depression has arrive is the "action" they receive at their friend's house talking about baseball cards and the stats they have in the back. In 2039, the MLB has changed to WBL or World Baseball League which made the baseball video game change its title to WBL 39 and was a major flop in sales. Wikipedians will be quick to notice that the deteriorating quality of video games started around the winter of 2037 when tatty games were being sold exclusively on the Canadian Shopping channel. However, the true Gaming Depression would not occur until the first quarter of 2038.
People will finally be able to get married and have children of their own. Many attractive females today will want to date and marry a "mature and responsible man" instead of some video game addict. Many females today will have to resort to online dating sites such as Tinder trying to find a "man that doesn't enjoy video games" which is hard to find outside of a rural isolated community or highly religious community that condemns video games. Wikipedia, abandonware sites, warez sites, in addition to various free games sites on the Internet will be the last vestige of hope for the addicted gamer.People will go back outside to nature for at least one hour of day instead of spending that time inside playing video games. The world will forget about Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy VI and start thinking about college and finding that special wife/husband instead. In a world without video games, maybe the obesity rates would start to make their descent as the adolescents of the world start to abandon their worthless gaming consoles for the shopping malls and fast food burger places of the "real world."
On January 19, 2038, the news would be quick to point out that the video game companies have been losing the most amount of money at the same time. Military pundits would blame the Universal Peace Charter of 2037 for causing the economic downturn while ex-military soldiers claim to have lost interest in video games once they couldn't have a proper virtual outlet for their aggression.
The Japanese video gaming industry will be the first major industry to recover from the Depression, offering virtual reality games for the rich. Facebook Nintendo's Oculus VR would break even during the Gaming Depression, passing the muster as "educational simulation software."
The return of video games[]
In the 2060s, video gaming throughout the rest of the world will make a comeback with a virtual reality interface and holographic screens. Dubbed the "Video Game Renaissance," the first video games will not come from Japan or North America. Instead, they will come from obscure places like South Iraq (like current Iraq but without territory that is north of Baghdad), the Indo-Pakistani Empire, and East Timor. The first major system to debut after the Gaming Depression ended would be the Samsung Home Entertainment System which had it's home in Canada.
At first, the more rebellious members of the post-rock generation will play video games. Profits for the video game companies will improve as video games become mainstream once more. By the year 2078, it will become commonplace for children, teenagers and young adults to be playing video games again. The three most popular places to play will be at shopping mall gaming kiosks, Internet cafes and in their places of residence. Sony and Facebook Nintendo decide to make hardware and software for video games again while Microsoft chickens out and focuses on personal computers, tablets and smartphones.