What I heard on the ground floor from various system integrators, components manufacturers, and other companies, is memory supply has been tied up for all of 2026, and that shortages could last as long as until 2031.
Sure it’s scuttlebutt but wouldn’t surprise me as being true.
The only problem is the current most used AAA game engine Unreal Engine 5. It is not very good for low end hardware, as the system and developers struggle to optimize it. Even the best devs struggle. But they can’t afford to require high end or just mid PCs. Handhelds become quite popular now. Devs want to make games run on Switch 2, which is beneficial as whole because it has to run under constraints of the system and environment.
Given that RAM prices may stay this expensive, my prediction is that developers absolutely have to make their games run on less powerful hardware (and on 16gb). I wonder how the Steam Machine (PC from Valve) will impact developers focus on Steam Deck.
It would be great if devs just target the steam deck and then let you improve graphics for better hardware.
Like, turn up ray tracing and other effects on the steam machine. Let my steamdeck be a potato.
Unfortunately the reality is, that developers don’t have all time of the world. They have deadlines to meet and focus on the thing that is in their mind the most important at the moment. For AAA it often means high quality textures and advanced tech like RayTracing, while they have less time to optimize it for weak hardware. On the other side some devs optimize for low hardware and then they don’t get the attention in the media they want to have, by having the greatest and biggest graphics. So they start optimizing later if the game is not too buggy and it is a success, so they get the greenlight to do more work on it.
Off course I simplify and it depends on the teams and publishers and so on. The point I am making is, that its not as easy a decision as we think or hope it would be. Especially because publishers force some decisions, regardless of what the developers or gamers want to have or need.