It’s hard to really predict what the VGM scene is going to be like in 10 years, or even 5 years for that matter. The ease of access to audio software has created a gold mine of creativity, and there are probably ten times the number of musicians trying to get their foot in the door now than there were 5 years ago. With each year, the number just grows and grows because everybody is finding it easier and easier to get access to things that were not so easy to reach in the past.

The sample library market is heavily saturated and continues to improve on realism, but I see more and more composers leaning towards hiring real musicians now than settling for samples when it is reasonable to do so. Obviously hiring performers is not in every composer's budget, but if they ever get the chance, they'll go for it. I myself have become more prone to hiring musicians for lead parts/solos in pieces because of how much more organic they sound when performed. It could very well be because our ears are starting to become attuned to the robotic nature of samples. I have no doubt samples will continue to get more advanced, but that human factor will always be missing. Maybe not to the average listener, but to those of us writing/producing the music, it stands out like a sore thumb.

I do fear that the commercial side of VGM might devolve a bit since it seems to follow the trends of the film industry. There will be new names popping up in the industry for sure that will do amazing work much like new names in the film industry, but then the expectations of the developers might take a wrong turn to where they just want composers to emulate existing sounds. There was a roundtable of professional film composers that discussed this a few years ago, and it was a sad conversation.

The indie scene of video games I think is helping to keep things in check, because in general they are still heavily melody-driven soundtracks that can stand apart on their own. I have no doubt that scene will just continue to grow, and we'll hear some great stuff coming out, but at the same time...there are so many games being pushed out lately that it might be harder to discover some soundtracks if you aren't actively looking for them. It is exciting and scary at the same time. I'd love to see many of my peers succeed and do great things, and I have no doubt that some, if not all of them, will, but will all their efforts be drowned in a sea of indie games?