“The GameStop trade” is old news by now, but it was unique enough to represent a timeless explanation of what we try to avoid. We do not short sell. We do not use leverage or any type of derivatives. And we do not invest in “distressed” or speculative equities.

The story of the year—the pandemic—is one that covers every part of life in every part of the world. But our interest is primarily the economic effects and the market impact in the United States. I started following the Coronavirus sometime in January of 2020. My view at the time was that the world should easily get it under control. I hoped, at worst, that it would be another SARS. It was a reasonable expectation that a similar disease outbreak would lead to a similar global health outcome. But one small change has made all the difference.

The future of video games will continue to build from the trends of the past. For consoles, this means creating the most attractive video game library. Game libraries are no longer made entirely with a physical shelf full of disks, but instead can simply be an account with a list of games associated with it. Digital downloads are also the future of the games themselves—selling the games through a digital distribution network has become the norm, but selling items inside a game is also a primary strategy that will never go away. No game is ever fully complete; it can be broken into thousands of pieces that are each sold individually, sometimes over many years.

But this main theme—a gaming industry that is more online and more digital—is overshadowed by the flashiest opportunity in the future of gaming: eSports.

The story of third-party developers is complicated and constantly evolving. Thousands of developers have been formed, bought out, shut down, and re-formed again. And only four major independent game publishers/developers still exist today (in order of size: Activision Blizzard, Electronic Arts, Take-Two Interactive, and Ubisoft).

This is how they do business.

The introduction of each new group of consoles is divided into different generations on the basis of what technology they use and when they were introduced. Each new generation was a race to reach the best combination of price, game library, console features, and timing. Getting any of those factors wrong meant that the company would struggle, but the most important was the game library. Missing on the game library could mean failing out of the industry, but getting it right could lead to success that extends to multiple generations.

The future of tech will be driven primarily by two major themes. Both are a continuation of decades-long trends: Faster Internet connection speeds will enable more devices to come online and create a more decentralized network. Faster, smarter, more efficient components will continue to make computers more powerful and more interactive.

After the Internet, changes in technology were primarily digital. While computers kept getting smaller, the main focus became how these computers connect with each other. Technology became more connected, more mobile, and more interactive. The physical components of a computer still had a place in the market, but they were overshadowed by the exponential growth in data; the most valuable technology was used for collecting data, analyzing data, and using data. The emergence of technology “platforms” defines this new world.

Before the Internet, changes in technology were primarily physical. As time passed, computing devices became smaller, cheaper, and easier to use. A summary of the different computer categories describes this change: from mainframe, to minicomputer, to microcomputer (personal computer), to “pocket computer” (and mobile phone). The company that forced the move to the next market was almost always a startup, but the previous market leaders were not always left behind; their influence on the research for these new markets helped to set the standard.