As everyone is riding high on the “Grand Theft Auto VI” hype cycle, I’m feeling extremely gloomy regarding the video game industry. And, ya know, about the economy all around. Something’s gotta give, and it’s looking to be the entirety of video games and tech.
Because of the absolutely ridiculous push toward building out “Artificial Intelligence” infrastructure, everything that makes your console or gaming PC run is becoming expensive. Worse, everything is becoming legitimately difficult to source. Months if not years of manufacturing capacity are already booked up by AI jagoffs, so the next generation consoles simply aren’t mass market devices anymore.
Normal people are being priced out of the hobby as it has existed for decades.
Simultaneously, the people who make the games we love are, by and large, getting tossed out on their asses. The industry doesn’t want to pay people to make games anymore — especially expensive people like Americans.
As such, the mainstream AAA space will only continue to shrink. Fewer and fewer well-funded games will be made, and so even less money will be spent by consumers. There’s a term for this: A death spiral. A feedback loop of doom.
We’re headed for collapse, and I don’t think there’s anything we can do about it.
Of course, games will continue to be made and enjoyed. We’ve seen exploitative free-to-play mobile games become wildly successful, and of course those will keep going. But large prestige games? I don’t see how those continue when companies demand hockey stick growth that simply cannot exist.
And as much as I love independent development, it’s only getting more difficult to succeed in that space. Not only do indies have to compete against a tidal wave of cheap garbage, but they’re being actively undermined by AI creeps cloning their games. Being legitimately innovative and distinct will inevitably be punished by the shitty climate.
Outside of major systemic changes and outright bans, I don’t think anybody has any clever ideas to thwart this bullshit.
Of the people currently in the field, how many of them will still be employed making games in five years? Ten? It’s fucking grim, and I cannot see a path for how it’ll ever get better.
I hope I’m wrong, but I worry that I’m not. The idea that our best years are behind us is crushingly sad, so by all means make an optimistic argument in the comment section below. Feed me the copium.
Image credit: Laura Ockel
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