This paper holds the material presented at our keynote at the Intelligent Virtual Environments and Virtual Agents Conference, where we analyzed future trends in virtual agent and environment technologies, as applied to the fields of videogames and interactive multimedia. We begin by observing current tendencies in game development projects, both in the market and in the academia, outlining their respective strengths and weaknesses. We follow by describing the aspects of game development that will come to shape the next generation of games, and discuss the requirements for academic projects to achieve the level of quality required to be competitive in this field. In the rest of the paper we analyze the roles, importance, challenges, and research opportunities that a new generation of virtual characters and environments will bring to the world of interactive entertainment.