Gamers’ worst nightmares about artificial intelligence have come true

Gaming community I was dismayed last week when Seamus Blakely, the original creator of the Xbox, claimed that the console was sitting in the sunset interview With GamesBit.

However, if you read the interview or his Comments on Blueskyyou will realize that he meant this thing in essence Xbox feel on: The console he built in “Ordeal”. Blakely speculated that Asha Sharma’s move in February from AI executive to executive vice president and CEO of Microsoft Gaming means the product is in “palliative care.”

Xbox is no It closed, but many were quick to believe the headlines, as there is a dark cloud over the industry at the moment. What happened?

While gaming has seen an unprecedented rise during the pandemic, artificial intelligence I crept behind it. The spread of AI in the gaming industry is already accelerating job losses and reducing the cost of work for developers at studios that are now being scrutinized by anti-AI gamers. Data centers They pulled RAM from the industry, leading to a global memory shortage. This has led to higher hardware costs required for consoles, and halted releases and displays Building computers at home—one of the rites of passage for entry-level players—a luxury.

In December, Valve announced this Stop The 256GB Steam Deck LCD model, released in 2022, and the 2023 upgrade are gone. This is the first discontinuation of a major console before a worthwhile upgrade is released; Valve’s Steam Machine, a box six times more powerful than the Steam Deck, is supposed to be released this year, but its exact timing and cost are still unknown. Meanwhile, Xbox and PS5 prices have risen. per BloombergSony has yet to confirm or deny that the PS5’s successor, which was scheduled to launch in late 2027, has been delayed by another year. And Nintendo, having narrowly avoided new tariffs on the Switch 2’s launch in 2025, which is what it is now. Sue the US government More than that, don’t think about the higher prices.

Six years ago, while the world was on lockdown, the gaming industry was booming.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons It sold 13.4 million units within just six weeks of its launch date in March 2020, the largest number of digital units for a console game ever sold in a single month. In the same year, global gaming revenues increased by 23 percent, and millions who had not previously classified themselves as gamers chose consoles and played PCs.

when PlayStation 5 launched In November 2020, seven years after its predecessor, it seemed like a promise that the gaming industry would be okay, even as other industries struggled to adapt to the pandemic. In July of 2021, Valve unveiled the Steam Deck, a portable console that would make it possible to play Steam games anywhere. Pre-orders sold out within hours.

Meanwhile, YouTubers and Twitch streamers have soared in popularity, with millions at home watching gamer streams rather than other on-screen entertainment. The gaming industry’s power centers are beginning to swell. Microsoft acquired Activision Blizzard and ZeniMax Media. Sony responded by acquiring Bungie in 2022 while investing $1.45 billion in Epic Games. Job advertisements in the gaming industry It rose by 40 percent During the epidemic.

But the advent of artificial intelligence led to a RAM shortage now referred to as RAM, which brought all this progress to a screeching halt.

The rapid rise of artificial intelligence has turned every corner of the technology industry upside down. almost One third of adults and Most teenagers In the United States, artificial intelligence is used on a daily basis, according to Pew Research Center research. Its data centers Doubled In the United States since 2022, which leads to even higher electricity costs 267 percent more than five years ago For families near those warehouses, according to Bloomberg. Reports It shows that the United States accounts for more than half of the “hyperscale facilities,” which are centers specifically designed for AI, and many of them are Billions of dollars investments.