It is no secret that 2020 and the pandemic were great for gaming. Forcing people inside and away from friends and family created a need for connection online – video games filled that need perfectly. Video games were and still are a connecting force, having the ability to connect with people who otherwise may have never met or create fun spaces for existing friends and family to interact. This is something that will never change within video game culture. However, accessibility to video games is rapidly deteriorating and becoming too expensive for the average person. This trend is happening for three reasons:

  1. The pandemic video game bubble is popping.
  2. The rise of AI.
  3. The deterioration of the gaming industry.

The Pandemic Video Game Bubble

The pandemic is long over, so people who looked to gaming for social connection no longer need it. This means that there are overall less people playing video games now than there were in 2020 and 2021. Less people in the market buying games leads to adverse effects in the gaming industry. People who invested their time and money into video games back then no longer believe it is such a good investment now. This is what the video game bubble popping means.

Too many people would point to record breaking profits in the gaming industry to say that gaming is more alive now than ever, glossing over the tens of thousands of layoffs that prop up those profits. Fewer people making games equals fewer games that are lower quality than before but somehow even more expensive, especially ones coming from larger gaming companies. All that being said, if this was the only problem facing video games, it would not be a huge deal, but it is not.

The Rise of AI

AI is biggest threat to video games, but it is not super obvious why. Investment into AI is unfathomably big. For example, the AI industry in terms of sheer cash-flow is already larger than the gaming industry despite gaming being around for longer. These AI companies need the best technology/hardware to run their data centers, and tons of it. Well guess what, that same technology/hardware is needed to build gaming PCs, consoles, and even phones/tablets if microchips are included in this calculation. Basic economics would dictate that a big increase in demand for a product (hardware in this case), a similarly large increase in price must occur. The moral of the story – AI has and will continue to directly cause price increases on PCs, consoles (i.e. PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, etc.), and phones/tablets.

Compounding the price issue, there is a very limited supply of this hardware due to limited resources and the time it takes to produce. Since these AI companies have billions of dollars behind them, most of this newly produced hardware is already committed to the AI companies, leaving the gaming community with scraps. Here is why this matters – newer games require more computing power to run, so the newest hardware will eventually be needed to run the newest games. With the price being so high and the limited supply of the hardware, many gamers will be unable to access the newest games. This problem has already taken hold and will only get worse in the future.

The Deterioration of the Gaming Industry

The previous two points are both major factors in the slow fall of the gaming industry. However, another factor comes from within the industry. Large gaming companies and their shareholders are creating games with number one goal of making money, making the creation of a good game secondary or tertiary to their business objectives. This can be seen with the numerous AAA games that have absolutely flopped recently. Since less copies of these games are being sold, the money comes from price increases on game purchase, an exorbitant number of microtransactions within them, and an increasing trend of subscription-based gaming services. Not to mention the buggy, low quality state that most of the AAA games are released in. All of this creates a less-than-ideal situation for gaming, and a self-inflicted wound by the gaming industry which is causing its own deterioration.

There is a pretty nice silver lining to these issues. The Indie and individual game developers gaming scenes are thriving. They create high quality games at lower price points that do not require the best hardware to run, giving AAA companies a literal run for their money. If you are looking for good games, please look for and support indie developers. Yes, video gaming is in trouble, but the gaming community and indie developers trying desperately to save it.