No matter where you look in the gaming industry, everything seems to be getting worse. Budgets have blown out of control, layoffs are widespread, and the cost of everything gaming-related is going up so much that it's going to price many of us out. The industry doesn't seem to be able to adjust to this new reality either, pushing for more demanding, hyper-realistic graphics that require rigs we just can't afford.
You don't have to be an industry expert to think that this is unsustainable. Games need to sell millions to make back their budgets, and we can't afford to buy every game that's coming out if they're all priced too high - and require us to upgrade our PCs. With that said, industry experts are sounding the alarm.
One of these figures is Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic Games. In the latest issue of Edge magazine (thanks, Gameindustry.biz), Sweeney says the industry is going through an even worse crash than the infamous video game crash of 1983.
"There's an unprecedented wave of investment in building AI systems and data centres, based on the belief that they're going to have a really transformational role in the economy," Sweeney says, setting out the problem facing the industry. "The scale of the economic opportunity there means they can outbid the entire entertainment industry for all the components."
Sweeney says this means that gaming giants are left without. "So we're getting the short end of the stick, and the prices of RAM and storage are quadrupling, and not necessarily stopping there," he argues. "We should expect there's just going to be a continual supply crisis for all gaming-relevant hardware for the next three years."
More specifically, that means three more years of RAM prices being absolutely ridiculous. That affects both PC and console gamers, with those on PC unable to upgrade, and console prices continuing to go up.
That is a pretty bleak way to look at it, but likely a realistic one. Unless the AI market crashes soon and all of those companies stop hogging up all the RAM, it will take a while for production to meet everyone's demands. But what certainly doesn't help is the game industry's eagerness to prop up generative AI as an essential part of game development, as if the developers couldn't function before it.
Epic Games is certainly guilty of this. Just recently, Fortnite found itself at the centre of a generative-AI controversy, thanks to its use of AI-generated assets and art - right after mass layoffs. Sweeney himself also came under fire for attacking Steam's AI content disclaimers, which warn customers when a game has used generative AI during development.
سەرچاوەی فەرمی بە زمانی ئینگلیزی: https://www.thegamer.com/tim-sweeney-rampocalypse-will-last-three-years/
