The AI boom is making things tougher for Quebec’s video game developers and gamers

Quebec's gaming industry is in the spotlight at this year's Montreal International Games Summit. And it's no secret that local developers are facing some big challenges right now. There's so, so, so many layoffs for starters. These are harder times, less disposable income. More and more expensive, the expectations of the players are getting higher. There's less tax credits, there's less financing, there's more competition all over the world. And gamers are facing their own challenge. If you're looking to buy a new video game system, either as a holiday gift or for yourself, prepare for a serious case of sticker shock. This is now becoming kind of like owning the latest iPhone or something like that. Like it's a luxury item. Historically, video game consoles would get cheaper as they got older. But this generation, the opposite has happened. For example, I bought the latest Microsoft Xbox on release day six years ago. And as you can see from my receipt, it cost $600 before tax. But today, the exact same product costs around $1,000. That's a 66% increase. So what's going on here? Since there's an AI gold rush at this time, every single RAM stick that is powering every single video game console, as well as the graphics cards, the price is rising because there's not enough offer for the demand. But it's not just video game consoles. The AI boom is making computer components way more expensive. And that means that PCs are pricier, whether you're gaming on one or using one to make games. All of it's going towards the AI, right? And that's why the costs are just like crazy. So I know for people who like to build their own PC, that is definitely a huge issue. It's so expensive that, yeah, we're stalling any upgrades that we can. We used to buy development rigs for maybe 3 to 5K, and now they're more like 9 to 10K. You know, we were kind of joking that we should stop making game and just sell all the RAMs in our development PC and, you know, retire. The AI sector's grip on hardware is getting tighter, and the next video game consoles could be even more expensive. So Quebec developers will have a choice to make. Chase after the latest and greatest hardware, or make games that focus on older but more affordable machines. Developers like us are really wondering what we should do. Are we doing games for the future hardware? Are we doing games where we keep? The players that don't necessarily have the means to move to the new hardware. Players will play, they will find ways to play. For developers, for us, it's to reach them where they are.