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this post was submitted on 05 Aug 2026
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Games
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They can kill AAA gaming, but devs will just learn to adapt to the hardware limitations of their time. If you've got a device you can install stuff on, devs will figure out how to make it run games. They may not be as shiny, which is practically sacrilege to the AAA player community, but so long as we have hardware, we'll have games.
I grew up with a card catalog and had Netscape navigator at college right out of high school. Stellar graphics are great, preferred, but not necessary. Would I care if graphics/engine quality went back to Dragon age origins or II? Mass effect the original? Even FO:NV? No. But I want the story level, complexity, and total game time to be triple digits when being completionist about it. Witcher 3 is lovely but it’s the quality of darkness in it that makes it so compelling.
Even without the hardware limitations, good, immersive stories that keep you as involved as GoT before the writers stopped writing are already in short supply.
I’m presently replaying the Dishonored games. There’s only so much of that a person can do. Games worth the time sink are already in short supply.
Candy crush and similar bullshit can’t replace good games.
All those things you want are divorced from the hardware for the most part, though. A gripping story has virtually no bearing on hardware requirements. Map complexity could be maintained by simply scaling down the graphical polish. Total game time is also almost totally decoupled from hardware strength.
If anything, I would argue that AAA's constant emphasis on graphics detracts from those. Maps can be more complex if they have less polygons and processing. They could spend more time fixing up the stories if they weren't hemorrhaging money on art that's way more detailed than it needs to be, and they would be more free to pivot if they need to because it's not as expensive to edit whatever needs it. It's way easier to make more content to extend the game time when it doesn't cost the moon and stars to add more fresh art to flesh it out.
Sure, but even with all that, what are the odds? Given the amount of “dated engine” and such in review commentary.
If there's no relief on hardware, the odds go up. Game devs have been able to constantly chase higher highs because consumer hardware has constantly evolved. There's been zero pressure to optimize or to rein in the graphics because a ton of people can still play day 1, and a bunch more will become able to play them soon as they yearn for it and strive to upgrade.
But if users can't upgrade because hardware is obscenely expensive or rare? That stops being the case. They have to cater to the average consumer in AAA because they desperately need to recoup the obscenely massive investment in development. If they refuse to optimize, if they insist on pushing graphics to ever new heights, they won't sell shit because nobody will be able to run it. The market will demand that they start working within some limitations.
Or the AI bubble pops, hardware goes back to being affordable, and the idea of limitations becomes little more than a bad dream to execs.
Hey, I went back and played both NWN and NWN2 base campaigns. I don’t care. But others will emit a never ending keening wail and possibly break their own bank accounts on it.