RE: https://infosec.exchange/@masek/116651124103630936
This does not just affect gaming, but all general purpose compute.
Supply chains and value chains are breaking and will not come back. Artificial AI demand is cornering any kind of non-cloud-computing.
Instead of running 3 years, local compute will have to run 10 years. Supply chains crumble, accessory industries die out. iFixit will, for a short time, see a boom.
This is already happening: All major mainboard vendors are seeing -25% demand. NVidia will stop producing and selling end-user gaming cards. Memory prices force the pricing of gaming consoles like the steam desk upwards by 50%. Server hardware sees similar price hikes.
To get workloads done in time and budget, you need to cloudify them.
And cloud computing will come with plenty of "security", that is, an AI layer that judges your code, presumed intent and purpose. For espionage ("market analysis"), content and mass control. If it does not please, it will be turned off and your account will be banned.
Running local hardware will then become an act of resistance, aka terrorism, and is suspect, because it escapes the "security network".
That's the endgame playbook.
Valve massively raised the prices for the Steam Deck:
- 1TB OLED $649 -> $949
- 512GB OLED $549 -> $789
The items are out of stock nonetheless.
Get used to the pattern: The unavailable hardware will become unaffordable
The supply chains will die, then the accessory industry will follow. Companies like FixIt may prosper as the PC has now to last a decade.
What remains of the industry will be handed over to China on a silver platter.
#gaming as we knew it is dead. Hope the software devs (or their AI agent) got the memo that their games have to run fine on older hardware.
