From the global RAM shortage driving up console prices to job loss in the industry, gaming is shaping up to be one of the AI boom's biggest casualties.
If this results in the AAA games industry dying and having a full reset in a couple years when this all blows over, I don’t think that’s a bad thing. I don’t think indie games are going anywhere, so it’s not like we won’t have anything new to play, and AAA studios have just become so generally awful that there wouldn’t be any great loss there.
They will be able to survive it far better than indies. They already wish they could push users to subscription and cloud gaming models, and I suspect this will drive the most predatory of the lot (EA) into acquiring their own PC rental programs. It will be an opportunity for them to sell you a packaged experience at a monthly subscription price. The indies that will survive will be those whose games don’t really have high hardware requirements, but the fan base isn’t the same.
Sucks that a job in gaming is not a viable career anymore though. Only option left is you slave away as an indie dev and most likely make under 500 bucks in the end.
That’s kind of unsustainable as a form of income.
All the fun jobs are going away :( time to learn plumbing I guess.
I mean, if the whole industry came to a stop tomorrow we still have hundreds of great (I’m talking about 8-10/10 games, not just good ones) games. And that is without resorting to emulation or replaying games.
That would require people learning how to program.
No, new devs will love the AI tool frameworks for creating games. The money will be good and nobody will own ANYTHING, except for the corporations that hold our debt.
I’m not falling for it. Going to start retro gaming clubs.
I’ve seen plenty of indie game studios swear off all generative AI. I mean I’m all for retro gaming too, just bought a new cable for my N64, but there’s definitely plenty of good choices in the indie space still
Yeah I do think there will be a “never die” indie community thankfully! I just think that going from experience the new generations bring more and more people to the internet and they do not share our values. They create their own things that corporations back and people see those as legitimate and safe, even though they are quite the opposite.
I just believe that what AI tools are will be split into categories because even indie devs can’t ignore all the tools forever. I mean at some point you’re using generated textures and it doesn’t have to be trained on broken dreams.
But then that creates all sort of gray areas for corporations to claim they are being good while they are raking it in and building their own gaming ecosystems.
Possibly, but polls show (yes I understand the caveats with them) AI being liked even less than ICE. So maybe the younger generation will listen on this one. Only time will tell.
I have played and enjoyed a lot of AAA games over the years. God of War, The Last of Us 1 & 2, Red Dead Redemption 2, Cyberpunk 2077, the new DOOM games, Battlefield 6, and pretty much any other popular AAA game you can think of over the last five years. You know what my top games are in terms of playtime? Stardew Valley, Factorio, and Rimworld. And it’s not even close.
Stardew, Factorio, and Rimworld have certain qualities that make long playtimes more likely. But that doesn’t inherently make them more valuable experiences, imho.
I think that Last of Us 1 and 2 are masterpieces. But I’ve only played them once each, and that’s okay.
Which is definitely fair. I’m just saying that just because I can’t afford a 5090 doesn’t mean I won’t be able to play games. Sure, I won’t be able to play GTA VI but I can still play thousands of other games.
If this results in the AAA games industry dying and having a full reset in a couple years when this all blows over, I don’t think that’s a bad thing. I don’t think indie games are going anywhere, so it’s not like we won’t have anything new to play, and AAA studios have just become so generally awful that there wouldn’t be any great loss there.
They will be able to survive it far better than indies. They already wish they could push users to subscription and cloud gaming models, and I suspect this will drive the most predatory of the lot (EA) into acquiring their own PC rental programs. It will be an opportunity for them to sell you a packaged experience at a monthly subscription price. The indies that will survive will be those whose games don’t really have high hardware requirements, but the fan base isn’t the same.
Sucks that a job in gaming is not a viable career anymore though. Only option left is you slave away as an indie dev and most likely make under 500 bucks in the end. That’s kind of unsustainable as a form of income.
All the fun jobs are going away :( time to learn plumbing I guess.
I mean, if the whole industry came to a stop tomorrow we still have hundreds of great (I’m talking about 8-10/10 games, not just good ones) games. And that is without resorting to emulation or replaying games.
“I have nothing to play”
Wife angrily points at my 1,000+ title library
“hey now! there’s no need to get personal …”
If anything, I’d expect smaller indie games that can run on weaker/older hardware to be more likely to survive
That would require people learning how to program.
No, new devs will love the AI tool frameworks for creating games. The money will be good and nobody will own ANYTHING, except for the corporations that hold our debt.
I’m not falling for it. Going to start retro gaming clubs.
I’ve seen plenty of indie game studios swear off all generative AI. I mean I’m all for retro gaming too, just bought a new cable for my N64, but there’s definitely plenty of good choices in the indie space still
Yeah I do think there will be a “never die” indie community thankfully! I just think that going from experience the new generations bring more and more people to the internet and they do not share our values. They create their own things that corporations back and people see those as legitimate and safe, even though they are quite the opposite.
I just believe that what AI tools are will be split into categories because even indie devs can’t ignore all the tools forever. I mean at some point you’re using generated textures and it doesn’t have to be trained on broken dreams.
But then that creates all sort of gray areas for corporations to claim they are being good while they are raking it in and building their own gaming ecosystems.
Possibly, but polls show (yes I understand the caveats with them) AI being liked even less than ICE. So maybe the younger generation will listen on this one. Only time will tell.
Just because some indies will make slop doesn’t mean all of them will. There will be good stuff too.
I have played and enjoyed a lot of AAA games over the years. God of War, The Last of Us 1 & 2, Red Dead Redemption 2, Cyberpunk 2077, the new DOOM games, Battlefield 6, and pretty much any other popular AAA game you can think of over the last five years. You know what my top games are in terms of playtime? Stardew Valley, Factorio, and Rimworld. And it’s not even close.
Stardew, Factorio, and Rimworld have certain qualities that make long playtimes more likely. But that doesn’t inherently make them more valuable experiences, imho.
I think that Last of Us 1 and 2 are masterpieces. But I’ve only played them once each, and that’s okay.
Which is definitely fair. I’m just saying that just because I can’t afford a 5090 doesn’t mean I won’t be able to play games. Sure, I won’t be able to play GTA VI but I can still play thousands of other games.