History UsefulNotes / TheNewTens

* May 2017 marked the very last performance of the Ringling Bros./Barnum & Bailey circus after 146 years, putting an end to the traditional circus on nationwide tours. Reasons are varied, ranging from animal activists cracking down on animal abuse in circuses (whether real or perceived) to the fact people on Website/YouTube and social media have done all kinds of unusual stunts to death (apart from popularizing those that would not work on wide venues), rendering the circus as "old hat" entertainment resorting to stale routines. While "premium" circuses such as the Cirque du Soleil have all but displaced the traditional circus in the developed world, big tops still enjoy great popularity elsewhere, in Latin America and Asia they have become recognized as cultural heritage.

** The decade started out poorly for anime, with the collapse of Toonami still lingering, the closeout of many prominent dubbing companies, and a string of poorly-performing shows. However, since 2012, anime has been enjoying a massive revival in the west, thanks to the revival of Toonami, the success of streaming services like Neon Alley (which would be absorbed into Creator/{{Hulu}}) and Website/{{Crunchyroll}}, new dubbing companies like NIS America and Creator/SentaiFilmworks Films rising to the fore, and a multitude of smash hits such as ''Anime/AttackOnTitan'', ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'', ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'', ''Anime/OnePunchMan'' and ''Literature/SwordArtOnline'', just to name a few.
** The revival of Creator/{{Toonami}} deserves special mention. An anime and action cartoon [[UsefulNotes/BlockProgramming block]] on Creator/CartoonNetwork whose efforts lead to the last anime boom, it eventually saw its end when the [[NetworkDecay CN Real]] [[AudienceAlienatingEra era]] became prominent[[note]]It could be said that the decline and fall of Toonami was a major cause for the end of the last anime boom, as there was no viable platform for anime of its scope that was able to replace it until its eventual revival[[/note]]. But on AprilFoolsDay 2012, viewers tuned into Creator/AdultSwim expecting to see ''Film/TheRoom2003'' again -- but instead saw the beloved anime block returning for one night - then after a huge Website/{{Twitter}} [[http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/events/bring-back-toonami campaign]] by anime fans, permanently on May 26. Out of the gate, it's done its part to help revive anime in the west, as it has cemented such hits as ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'', and ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' as well as the shows mentioned on this tab, and even turned ''Manga/DeadmanWonderland'' - a program that tanked badly in Japan[[note]]some saying as a result of the above mentioned moe/otaku pandering boom[[/note]] - into a hit with a bonafide fanbase. The block has even rescued shows that were [[ScrewedByTheNetwork screwed by the parent network]] such as the reboot of ''[[WesternAnimation/{{Thundercats 2011}} ThunderCats]]'' and ''WesternAnimation/SymBionicTitan'', though time will tell if either or both shows will eventually see continuation. And perhaps because of this success, they've even gotten the privilege of showing ''Anime/SpaceDandy'' at the same time it is being broadcasted in Japan.

* In relation to the aforementioned digitization of the anime industry, some companies and animators have already started exploiting new media more directly. Examples include Creator/ProductionIG's anime ''Kick-Heart'' being Kickstarter-supported and Creator/{{Sunrise}}/Creator/BandaiEntertainment streaming at least some of its ''Gundam'' shows (including the ''Unicorn'' {{OVA}}s episodes) for free on Website/YouTube.

** Among some of K-Pop's highlights, US artist Akon paired up with Korean group Wonder Girls for the hit single ''Like Money'', and Music/{{PSY}}'s [[https://youtu.be/9bZkp7q19f0 Gangnam Style]] has broken the world record for being the most viewed song on Website/YouTube, reaching #1 on the music charts in the UK and Australia, and #2 in the USA. PSY even paired up with ''Music/MCHammer'' of all people, [[https://youtu.be/qlUyF6q0zKg performing a mash-up of Gangnam Style]]. K-Pop has made inroads on Australian radio, and dominates the nation-wide channel [[Creator/SBSPopAsia SBS PopAsia]]. When the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU) decided to have its first ever TV Song Festival in 2012, featuring eleven performers across the Asia-Pacific,[[note]] Singapore, Australia, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Malaysia, Japan, Hong Kong, Indonesia, China, Afghanistan, and of course South Korea [[/note]] it chose Korea as the host nation.

* Despite the economic downturn, technology marches on. Website/{{Facebook}}, Website/{{Twitter}}, and the smartphone have revolutionized the social experience, spurring some commentators to predict the end of privacy. The Internet is also proving to be even less hospitable to the preservation of media than the newspapers and film reels of past decades, with once-well-known virtual media of the 2000s, like ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'', ''Webcomic/KidRadd'', ''Webcomic/BobAndGeorge'' and [[DefunctOnlineVideoGames several MMOs]] either lost or on their way to oblivion, although a few have undergone the website equivalent of KeepCirculatingTheTapes, with projects that relocate webcomics to still-supported websites.

* Although not quite as big as Website/{{Facebook}}, Website/{{Tumblr}} became massively popular since its formation in 2007, and houses countless communities, the most popular being referred to as "social justice bloggers", "hipster bloggers" and "fandom bloggers".[[note]]It also became infamous as a host for more... [[TheInternetIsForPorn mature content]], so much so that when Tumblr suddenly announced that it would be purging all such content in 2018, its user base took a ''massive'' hit - some figures estimate that the site lost ''nearly half of its users in a little over a month''.[[/note]] Website/{{Yahoo}} bought Tumblr for $1.1 billion in May 2013.

* On the other side, Creator/DreamworksAnimation's reputation improved with more story-driven, less-jokey efforts beginning with ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda'' in 2008 and ''WesternAnimation/HowToTrainYourDragon'' in 2010, however the studio's movies became increasingly intellectual and/or cloying since then, hurting its financial position to the point it almost went bankrupt after a series of failures (Pacific Data was closed in December 2014). DW returned to the old formula with 2015's ''WesternAnimation/Home2015'', which became a major commercial hit, as it happened to ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda3'' and ''WesternAnimation/TheBossBaby''. The studio itself was purchased by Creator/{{Universal}} for 3.8 billion dollars and they will start distributing their films in 2018. Jeffrey Katzenberg will no longer have control of the studio once the purchase is complete (he will stay at the company as head of [=DreamWorks=] New Media). Instead, control will be overseen by Illumination CEO Chris Meledandri.

* Within Eastern culture, [[UsefulNotes/KoreanWave South Korea began to spread its culture more aggressively into the West]], matching Japan's cultural influence in some aspects. China and Russia have also attempted to compete with Hollywood by making their own blockbuster-like films, although these are little known in the West.

The effects of this was felt with UsefulNotes/TheJapaneseInvasion seeming to reel back from some foreign shores, with the anime, manga, and Japanese video gaming industries considered to have suffered a crash similar to MediaNotes/TheGreatVideoGameCrashOf1983 at the beginning of the decade due to a combination of general oversaturation and [[https://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2014/01/09/general/will-cool-japan-finally-heat-up-in-2014/#.XGZGOndFyUk an ever-greater focus in Japan on pandering to the]] {{Otaku}} market at the expense of casual and foreign fans, although as the decade moved along, said industries have largely been seen to have recovered.

* The popularity of [[AllCGICartoon computer-animated features]] on the big screen continued apace from the TurnOfTheMillennium and has greatly benefited from the USefulNotes/ThreeDMovie revival.

* UsefulNotes/TheBlockbusterAgeOfHollywood is still going strong, in spite of the fact competition from premium cable and streaming services have meant a shift towards an improved movie-going experience, which has translated into Hollywood posting ever higher box-office numbers in spite of admissions decreasing on a sustained basis since the late 1990s/early 2000s (Steven Spielberg and George Lucas are among those predicting that the business model will eventually evolve into one similar to theatre and concerts). The critical and financial failures in the domestic market of numerous blockbusters between late 2010 and mid-2014, and franchise-based films beginning in 2016, have made movie studios rethink their strategies -- especially as foreign revenues have dropped due to the growth of Netflix and rampant piracy in developing countries.
** Meanwhile, a new "indie wave" emerged during the second half of the decade, featuring a personal feeling [[GenreThrowback reminiscent of the]] [[UsefulNotes/NewHollywood 70s-era "auteurs"]], drastically different from the sentimental "Sundance style" or the [[RealIsBrown "kitchen-sink" realism]] that marked "indie" filmmaking during the 2000s. Ironically, streaming has given people a higher awareness for less "commercial" fare, and films like ''Film/Moonlight2016'', ''Film/LaLaLand''[[note]]The two of them being the focus of the biggest Oscar blunder ever, when the former winning Best Picture as the latter was named first in a "Steve Harvey" moment[[/note]] and ''Film/ManchesterByTheSea'' became popular with the mainstream audience, while ''Film/BabyDriver'' and ''Film/TheBigSick'' competed with blockbusters on even terms for the summer box office in 2017. Not even ''superhero films'' could escape this trend, ''Logan'' being one of the darkest films of the genre, while ''Wonder Woman'' and ''Spider-Man: Homecoming'' aimed straight to young adults and mostly ditched the "epic battle" scenes associated with these movies.

** To detractors, including UsefulNotes/NewHollywood-era talents like Creator/MartinScorsese and Creator/FrancisFordCoppola, the content of such films consists of StrictlyFormula, StatusQuoIsGod, corporate-mandated fare that focuses primarily on elaborate action setpieces rather than plot, CharacterDevelopment, and atmosphere, and is removed from real-world concerns and complex/adult human emotions. To win the favor of conservative markets such as China (and even reactionary U.S. audiences) content is apolitical and minority characters are few: The Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse took 10 years to introduce a non-white lead and almost 11 for a solo female lead, with no significant LGBTQA+ characters ''at all'' in that time -- though that's accepted as being down to conservative CEO Ike Perlmutter, with immediate moves being made to get ''Film/{{Captain Marvel|2019}}'' and ''Film/{{Black Panther|2018}}'' onscreen being made as soon as Creator/KevinFeige managed to take control of Marvel Studios -- and BloodlessCarnage to secure PG-13 ratings and draw in audiences that would [[AvoidTheDreadedGRating not watch films with a lower or higher rating]]. The films thus end up with a lack of thematic weight and artistic flair and won't endure the way even the poppiest blockbusters of previous decades did.

* In terms of Asian music, the effects of UsefulNotes/TheJapaneseInvasion seemingly reeling back from foreign shores (as mentioned in the Anime section) has also affected JapanesePopMusic's once-sterling reputation in the Asian music scene; with their relatively-closed borders and peculiar approach to exporting their culture, especially since it has given UsefulNotes/SouthKorea, widely considered as its cultural rival, a golden chance to shine in the global stage, perhaps replacing almost every other nation as the cultural capital of Asia in the process[[note]](with some even saying that South Korea has taken that sole distinction from the Japanese)[[/note]].

* The patents for UsefulNotes/{{MP3}} expired on 23 April 2017. Some thought that the [=MP3=] players and/or the format itself is dead, but according to the creators, [[https://marco.org/2017/05/15/mp3-isnt-dead it's not]].

* Adult-oriented animation made major strides in escaping the negative reception earlier [[AnimatedShockComedy Animated Shock Comedies]] had received during the second half of the 2010s, with feature films like ''WesternAnimation/SausageParty'', ''WesternAnimation/LovingVincent'', and ''WesternAnimation/IsleOfDogs'', as well as TV series like the aforementioned ''[=BoJack HorseMan=]'', ''WesternAnimation/{{Primal}}'' and ''WesternAnimation/{{Undone}}''.

* In relation to the aforementioned digitization of the anime industry, some companies and animators have already started exploiting new media more directly. Examples include Creator/ProductionIG's anime ''Kick-Heart'' being Kickstarter-supported and Creator/{{Sunrise}}/Creator/BandaiEntertainment streaming at least some of its ''Gundam'' shows (including the ''Unicorn'' OVAs episodes) for free on Website/YouTube.

* Some of the biggest programs of [[UsefulNotes/CollegiateAmericanFootball college football]] had been hit with scandals. Not only did Penn State have to vacate many of its wins dating back to the time of Paterno's alleged discovery, which nullified his status as the winningest coach in the sport's history, it led to the athletic program and the university itself overhauling their leadership and postseason bans for the football team until 2016 (all sanctions other than a $60 million fine and two years of the postseason ban have been reversed owing to evidence revealed in 2015 that the NCAA seriously mishandled the investigation), not to mention a nationwide effort by universities to step up their anti-molestation policies. The University of Southern California had also been hit with scandals when it was discovered that in the mid-2000s many USC players had accepted money from agents, which led to a 2-year postseason ban from 2010-11, a vacation of several wins, including the 2005 National Championship rout over Oklahoma, and famed running back and alumnus Reggie Bush handing back his Heisman Trophy[[note]]an end-of-the-year trophy bestowed to a high-impact player, usually either a quarterback or running back[[/note]]. The University of Miami also faced probes over financial scandals that led to self-enforced bans on the 2011-12 postseasons, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill[[note]]In college sports, "North Carolina" by itself refers to this campus. The "University of North Carolina", without a geographic identifier, is actually the state's ''public university system''—consisting of ''16'' universities, some of which don't even have "North Carolina" in their names, plus [[MyFriendsAndZoidberg one]] [[OddNameOut residential]] [[NonIndicativeName high]] [[TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers school]].[[/note]] and Ohio State University football programs each faced a one-year postseason ban in 2012 for violations of NCAA rules.

* Despite setbacks in human space endeavors, commercial exploration of space has turned out to be a good investment for NASA, with no less than ''five'' separate manned capsules[[note]]NASA's Orion, [=SpaceX=] Dragon, Boeing CTS-100, Sierra Nevada Dream Chaser, and an unspecified capsule by Blue Origin[[/note]], four human-rated launch vehicles[[note]]human-rated versions of the existing Delta IV and Atlas V; Falcon 9; and the Space Launch System[[/note]], and two unmanned resupply vessels[[note]]the aforementioned Dragon, in its cargo, configuration, plus the Orbital Sciences Cygnus[[/note]] under development, for deployment some time between now and the early 2020s. Of these, Orion and Dragon are capable of going beyond Low Earth Orbit and potentially to Mars, while the rest are to be LEO ferries. The era of commercial space transport can be fairly said to have begun some time in 2012, when the Dragon completed testing, including the all-important retrieval [[note]]As ''Series/TheDailyShow'''s Jon Stewart said to [=SpaceX=] CEO Elon Musk, (paraphrased): "There are four entities which have sent something into orbit and then retrieved it intact. These four are the Soviet Union/Russia, the United States, the People's Republic of China... [[TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers and Elon Musk]]."[[/note]], and began operations[[note]]first flight to the ISS: 22-31 May 2012, in cargo configuration[[/note]]. Every-day citizens are closer than ever to affordable space trips, and space travel itself could be a big boom for science and the economy. Last but not least, a consortium of super-rich entrepreneurs, among them, Creator/JamesCameron, have started a company aimed at [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetary_Resources mining asteroids]].

** After emerging as the new kid on the block for heavy music in the mid-2000s and hitting its stride in the late 2000s, {{Deathcore}} has settled into a more stable role over the course of the decade, both in terms of acceptance by metal as a whole and its own acceptance of and friendliness with death metal. While many of the established acts from the 2000s have abandoned the genre (particularly Music/SuicideSilence and Music/{{Whitechapel}}), assumed PartTimeHero status (Music/DespisedIcon, Winds of Plague, I Declare War), or fallen off the map (Music/AllShallPerish, As Blood Runs Black), the void left by the mainstream faces of the genre has largely been filled by Music/ThyArtIsMurder, Music/{{Carnifex}}, and Music/{{Oceano}}, while acts like Music/FitForAnAutopsy, Slaughter to Prevail, and Rings of Saturn have taken over the tier below them.

*** Creator/BlizzardEntertainment, once an iconic and universally loved figure, has started to develop cracks in its image. Aggressive pushes on the e-sports scene appear to have caused the company's focus to become split, and some of its [=IPs=] appeared to stagnate at points, with ''[[VideoGame/HearthstoneHeroesOfWarcraft Hearthstone]]'' and ''VideoGame/HeroesOfTheStorm'' experiencing intervals of little forward development. They also attracted scorn for their forays into mobile games, most notably the infamous ''VideoGame/DiabloImmortal'' reveal at [=Blizzcon 2018=], which didn't sit well with their western player base, who saw this as an abandonment of their established and devoted audience in favour of easy revenue from Asian mobile markets. However, their single most damning moment was an incident with ''Hearthstone'' esports player "Blitzchung", who was immediately banned from a tournament and harshly punished after expressing support for the 2019-20 Hong Kong protests during an interview, along with stream casters who were broadcasting his words. The company's actions quickly garnered attention, and were soon subject to heavy criticism from the public: objections to what was seen as transparent appeasement of Chinese business relations sprouted from many third parties, with several US Congressmen signing a letter of admonishment to Blizzard, and boycotts being called among the gaming community. These events had a lasting effect on the company's reputation, closing the decade at a low point in public perception. Adding a final insult to the injury, the January 2020 remake of one of its classics, ''VideoGame/{{Warcraft}} III: Reforged'', garnered an overwhelmingly negative response[[note]]It is [[ObviousBeta a bug-ridden mess]], lacks features both [[NeverTrustATrailer from its trailer in 2018]] and from the original game, the EULA was updated from the original to give Blizzard exclusive ownership over any and all user-created content (a response to the ''WCIII'' mod ''[[VideoGame/DefenseOfTheAncients DotA]]'' becoming popular enough to become its own separate franchise, which Blizzard didn't have full ownership of due to it originally being a user-created mod), and the original has been merged with the remake, forcing those who already owned the original to contend with the unwelcome changes, to ensure the EULA update can't be sidestepped (keep in mind, the original was released in 2002, and its classic status ensured it retained a devoted fanbase for just over seventeen years before it was merged with the disastrous remake)[[/note]]. P.S: [[FromBadToWorse It gets worse for the 2020's.]]

The effects of this was felt with UsefulNotes/TheJapaneseInvasion seeming to reel back from some foreign shores, with the anime, manga, and Japanese video gaming industries considered to have suffered a crash similar to UsefulNotes/TheGreatVideoGameCrashOf1983 at the beginning of the decade due to a combination of general oversaturation and [[https://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2014/01/09/general/will-cool-japan-finally-heat-up-in-2014/#.XGZGOndFyUk an ever-greater focus in Japan on pandering to the]] {{Otaku}} market at the expense of casual and foreign fans, although as the decade moved along, said industries have largely been seen to have recovered.

** Perhaps as a response to the industry’s abusive retention of "[[QuirkyWork traditional]] [[ValuesDissonance and at times controversial]] conventions", the Tokyo government went as far as passing [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokyo_Metropolitan_Ordinance_Regarding_the_Healthy_Development_of_Youths Bill 156]], which would essentially restrict titles with such questionable content from being sold to minors. Not surprisingly, the industry and anime fans have largely opposed it, citing concerns of free speech and that governments shouldn’t be trying to force such cultural shifts in such a matter. The broadness of the law also leave it open to abuse and some have said that the restrictions can also bring further detriment to the industry like UsefulNotes/TheComicsCode did to western comics. While the law was passed in December 2010 and was supposed to take full effect in July 2011, due to the various lawsuits to try and stop it as well as concerns over enforcement, time will only tell how this will go.
** Eastern video games (especially in regards to the {{JRPG}}) have fallen deeply, as the most recent offerings by Creator/SquareEnix, such as ''VideoGame/{{Mindjack}}'' and ''VideoGame/LordOfArcana'', failed to impress a Western gaming community that has written them off, and ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' suffered its greatest failure to date with [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV its fourteenth installment]] (though [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyXV the following installment]] was heralded as a return to form, and Square-Enix took the criticisms at heart to re-launch the fourteenth installments as slow and steady improvement). While Idea Factory and Creator/NipponIchi have tried to pick up the slack, they weren't well-received, with the growing differences between Japanese and Western tastes in gaming often cited as an explanation. This is in addition to sites like Polygon and Kotaku publishing articles with an anti-Japan bias, though these have mellowed down over time as other games were well-received. Still, this inadvertently had a chilling effect on games being brought over from Japan, ranging from refusal to localize certain games like ''VideoGame/DeadOrAliveExtremeBeachVolleyball3'' and ''VideoGame/OmegaLabyrinthZ'' to censorship of fanservice content. However, just like anime, Japanese video games are still a formidable force due in part to the resurgence of the {{Fighting Game}} with titles like ''VideoGame/BlazBlue'', as well as the arrival of Nintendo's UsefulNotes/WiiU in 2012 and Sony's UsefulNotes/{{Playstation 4}} later in 2013. While the Wii U did poorly at first, it soon made its mark with a string of strong hit games[[note]]which did little to nothing to boost sales, as it had a mere 13.56 million lifetime, just barely better than the Gamecube’s lifetime sales in exclusively North America[[/note]], and the [=PS4=] has been doing even better. However, the effort is muddled with frustrating issues such as increased censorship of newer [=PS4=] games has proven to have been met with a harsh reception.

** The confluence of the [=#MeToo=] movement, the aforementioned stricter MPAA guidelines, the move towards big blockbusters, and the general cultural movement away from sex have resulted in nearly all nudity, sexual content and eroticism disappearing from films receiving wide release (being mostly the domain of the odd foreign or arthouse film). Many journalists have written thinkpieces about how modern film is the most [[TamerAndChaster desexualized]] it has been since the demise of UsefulNotes/TheHaysCode in the 1960's.

* The decade has also showcased a growing divide between "casual" and "hardcore" gamers, with many citing the advent of motion-control gaming as part of the debate: The UsefulNotes/{{Wii}}, the [[UsefulNotes/{{Xbox 360}} Kinect]], and the [[UsefulNotes/PlayStation3 Move]] have given gamers new ways to play, but only a handful of titles have taken full advantage of these motion-control devices, and most of them are "casual" games like ''VideoGame/JustDance'', ''VideoGame/DanceCentral,'' and the ever-popular ''VideoGame/WiiSports'' series, causing many diehard gamers to deride motion-control as a gimmick. At the same time, cellular phones and handheld computers have seen tremendous growth, with many of its games, like the famous ''VideoGame/AngryBirds'', proving to be a prime attraction for the casual gamer. As phone-based games became increasingly popular among casual gamers during this period, they began drifting away from traditional retail video games. On the other side of the extreme, let's not even get started on the "exclusivity" PC gamers want their format to go, with the increasingly intense hardware requirements and the perceived StopHavingFunGuys attitude regarding the format. All this has left fans and analysts to wonder if there can ever be a middle ground again. Creator/{{Nintendo}} however, often credited/MisBlamed for starting this trend, attempted to re-bridge the gap by catering to both casuals and diehards this time around with the UsefulNotes/Nintendo3DS and the UsefulNotes/WiiU, with both underperforming, the Wii U becoming the death knell for motion control. The Nintendo Switch eventually recaptured the casual market at the same time the company began a belated incursion into the mobile game business.

* [[IndieGame Indie gaming]] has garnered widespread popularity due in thanks to the proliferation of the internet, given most of these are [[UsefulNotes/DigitalDistribution distributed online]] and a majority of the industry's revenue comes from downloads, as with thatgamecompany's ''VideoGame/{{Flower}}'' and ''VideoGame/Journey2012'', initially available on the UsefulNotes/PlayStationNetwork to strong digital sales and critical acclaim and, along with ''flOw'', [[LimitedSpecialCollectorsUltimateEdition eventually rereleased on a one-BluRay disc compilation titled]] ''[[LimitedSpecialCollectorsUltimateEdition Journey Collector's Edition]]''. Creator/{{Sony}} and Creator/{{Nintendo}} show interest in indie video game developers, including thatgamecompany. Indie games, initially known in shareware circles during the 1990s, became increasingly profitable after the late 2000s saw numerous critically praised titles such as ''VideoGame/{{Braid}}''. They came to be characterized as relying on innovative gameplay mechanics and unusual art styles. ''[[VideoGame/MonacoWhatsYoursIsMine Monaco]]'', ''VideoGame/{{Fez}}'', ''VideoGame/PapersPlease'', ''VideoGame/OuterWilds'', ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'', and ''VideoGame/{{Cuphead}}'' won plenty of positive reviews and decent sales for such approaches, but a growing number of developers have also created horror games including ''VideoGame/AmnesiaTheDarkDescent''. By far the most successful of these games is the [[JustOneMoreLevel notorious(ly addictive)]] ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'' created by a Swedish programmer named Markus "Notch" Persson. It uses pixellated graphics, the point is [[WideOpenSandbox you mine blocks and build any imaginable thing out of them]], and you have to defend yourself from hostile monsters by not just finding supplies, but using a shelter made from scratch. It even has been constantly updated by Mojang who ported it to iOS, UsefulNotes/Xbox360, Wii U, and the Google Android. Other notable indie games include the aforementioned ''VideoGame/AngryBirds'' series, ''VideoGame/LeagueOfLegends'', and a pair of unlikely 2014 sleeper hits in ''VideoGame/FlappyBird'' and ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys''.

* 2017 was seen as a renaissance for Japanese video game development and their reception in the West, which coincided with the above stronger interest in japanese media as noted in the anime and manga section above. ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil7'' gained back a major level of prestige amongst fans that were seeing a sharp decline in the franchise's quality over the previous half of the decade, which hit a nadir with ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil6'' and ''VideoGame/ResidentEvilOperationRaccoonCity'', with the 7th given praise as the best in the franchise since the [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil4 the fourth game]]. ''VideoGame/Yakuza0'' and the later released ''VideoGame/YakuzaKiwami'' led to a NewbieBoom for the franchise, having the best sales for the series in the west in its history. ''VideoGame/TalesOfBerseria'' was critically acclaimed as the best in the series since ''VideoGame/TalesOfVesperia'' after a string of many dissapointments amongst the fans. ''VideoGame/{{Nioh}}'', a [[Creator/KoeiTecmo Team Ninja]]-developed project that was infamously stuck in DevelopmentHell since 2004 finally released to a high universal claim as well, garnering the best western sales in the history of Team Ninja's career. ''VideoGame/NierAutomata'' not only managed to make Creator/YokoTaro as household name with gamers, but saved Creator/PlatinumGames from the brink of collapse after several bad licensed titles with Activision and the tragic cancellation of ''VideoGame/{{Scalebound}}'' earlier that year. ''VideoGame/Persona5'' became the best selling game from Creator/{{Atlus}} in the company's history, and managed to make an already successful ranchise even more mainstream as a result. The biggest winner, however, was Creator/{{Nintendo}}, whose release of the UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch was met with universal acclaim, with ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'' being seen as one of the best launch titles in console history, ''VideoGame/Splatoon2'' cementing the ''Splatoon'' IP as one of the company's most lucrative properties, the unanimously well received ''VideoGame/SuperMarioOdyssey'' being further proof that Nintendo's dark days with the UsefulNotes/WiiU were over, and ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2'' giving Creator/MonolithSoft their big break after years of making [[AcclaimedFlop acclaimed but underperforming games]]. These trends for well recieved and commercially successful japanese games continued into 2018, with titles like ''VideoGame/DragonBallFighterZ'', ''VideoGame/MonsterHunterWorld'', and the remake of ''VideoGame/ShadowOfTheColossus'' among others showed that Japanese gaming has made a true comeback. [[https://youtu.be/_j6ZHkg5BtE This video in particular]] explains this phenomenon. 2019 has only seen this train of success continuing, with ''VideoGame/SekiroShadowsDieTwice'', ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil2Remake'', and ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses'' all being acclaimed by audiences and critics, while the successes of ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry5'' and ''VideoGame/AstralChain'' marked a resurgence for the StylishAction genre.

* By the end of the decade a debate between movie buffs and creatives over whether the American film industry has become "infantilized" with its emphasis on animation, musicals, and particularly fantasy-based blockbuster films and franchises, '''especially''' comic book-based ones, took root. Where non-fantastical films (dramas, romances, comedies, real-world action thrillers), often modestly-budgeted, thrived up through the previous decade, the American film industry now builds release schedules almost entirely around "tentpole" movies that easily lose tens, if not ''hundreds'', of millions of dollars if they aren't blockbuster hits, and demand the bulk of screen space in theaters (especially [[FlyoverCountry outside coastal metropolises]]), thus limiting the reach of non-SummerBlockbuster fare.

* After decades of being little more than a recurring theme in sci-fi works, VirtualReality reached consumer availability in a form that people actually took seriously, in the kickstarted the UsefulNotes/OculusRift [=CV1=], and the UsefulNotes/HTCVive; shortly thereafter Sony would bring their own version in the [=PlayStation=] VR. Given the pedigree of all three systems (Oculus having a lot of videogame talent in its staff roster, and the Vive being little more than a consumer-targeted refinement of prototypes built by PC gaming juggernaut Creator/ValveSoftware), it's not surprising that the uses and software library of all three consist almost entirely of videogames.