BOTW's contribution was making the open world interact with itself physically rather than just existing as scenery. Wind affects fire. Metal attracts lightning. Wet surfaces conduct electricity. These are not scripted interactions — they are emergent from consistent physics rules applied to everything in the world. Every open world designer who worked after 2017 had to decide whether and how to implement this approach.

The Last of Us demonstrated that a game could be designed narrative-first without sacrificing gameplay cohesion. Its influence on the AAA industry's approach to story and character — the push toward cinematic presentation, the willingness to center emotional beats over mechanical challenges — is visible in almost every major narrative game released in the decade following.

BG3's commercial and critical success proved that the classic CRPG format — turn-based combat, deep dialogue, reactive world, full voice acting — could compete with action games for mainstream attention. Its success prompted multiple major studios to greenlight projects that would not have been funded without its performance. The industry shifted its sense of what was commercially viable because of BG3.