Nvidia has been what I can only describe as the Porsche equivalent to PC gaming hardware. Reliable, sexy, and powerful. All that, combined with its newer AI frame-rendering software, has made it the number one provider for gamers. However, Nvidia has made some recent PR splashes with some recent decisions. Rumors have been circulating about the recent “discontinuing” of the 5090 and 5080 GPUs. Nvidia officially released a statement addressing the rumors about the 5090, saying it “has definitely not been discontinued.” The rumors started because both components were removed from Nvidia’s official US marketplace website. While Nvidia has not made an official statement about the 5080, it has made clear that serious supply chain constraints are limiting production of multiple Nvidia products; at least for the 5090, it has not been discontinued.
Nvidia has not done much to ease concerns about speculation around its goals for the average consumer; however, it at least claims to be working in the consumer’s best interest. Earlier this year, Nvidia signed a $500 billion deal with Wall Street giants, primarily BlackRock, to fund their enthusiastic AI goals. The deal is very complicated; it’s not a bunch of companies coming together to give Nvidia $500 billion, but it is a very questionable investment. Essentially, Nvidia is using its goods and services as collateral so major financial institutions can fund major development projects through invested capital. Here is where things get interesting: Nvidia is offering some guarantees on the invested capital. Companies will pay Nvidia to build hardware, data centers, and programs that the investors will eventually use. Nvidia will then guarantee a percentage of the investment as a return, which investors will reinvest, and so on. This circular form of funding is being done in the name of helping the consumer, even though the thing customers actually use is more expensive than ever.
Over the past couple of weeks, major tech players have been incredibly outspoken that consumers can really screw themselves for all they care. Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, is quoted as saying it’s “quite terrible” that DRAM is being wasted on consumers’ PCs since they use only about 5% of what they have. Making the argument that DRAM should be solely allocated to cloud tech. Truthfully, you can’t be too mad at Sam, since he runs a cloud systems company and intends for the cloud to be the source of all consumer-based systems. He’s not alone. The former CEO of Sony, Ken Kutaragi, said the public outcry over owning physical games is a “mentality issue.” Lastly, AMD CEO Lisa Su said just this past week that AMD is an “AI-first company.” The reality is that all these tech giants have every incentive and intention to make sure you keep bringing your wallets back to them to enjoy your life. In the words of the World Economic Forum, “You will own nothing, and you will be happy.”
However, some people won’t let big tech own you. There has been recent buzz around the complete deconstruction of Adobe’s entire software suite. Here are the high-level highlights of the story.
A software engineer named Brandon Thomas used several AI tools to essentially create free versions of Adobe’s entire software suite. Without getting too in the weeds, he used specific methods to avoid legal problems that could arise from Adobe claiming he stole code to make this possible. He claims he used a methodology known as ‘black-box reverse engineering’, or ‘clean-room replication.’ This allowed his AI programs to examine Adobe’s code and write new code from scratch, creating completely free versions of several of Adobe’s flagship programs.
This story has unlocked the door for an interesting conversation about what AI could actually accomplish. Coders have used similar AI tools to jailbreak the PS5 to do a lot—backward compatibility for physical PS2 games, plus ports and emulators that bring the PS5 library to PC. Sony has responded frantically with sudden software updates that make it impossible to use their online platform if you choose not to update. They’ve also made it so you cannot even buy or play new games without the update, leaving consumers with a choice: turn your PlayStation into an emulator and backward compatibility machine, or use that PlayStation the way Sony wants you to.
This was a very short summary of recent events, but it is making AAA companies squirm, so much so that it made one developer (sort of) say the quiet part out loud.
Rockstar Games has officially announced that the PC version of GTA VI will be available in Q1 2027, with people speculating a January release, which will be the fastest PC release of any Rockstar title. Rockstar claims that they don’t want PC players to have to wait to play their game; however, the reality is they want to make money. They know that PS5 emulators have made substantial strides and could cut into their bottom line. While we are still in the early stages of understanding AI’s consequences for gamers, it’s becoming clearer by the day that AI can be used to give gamers what they want. Access without borders, buying a game once and actually keeping it, and removing the power big corporations have. Adobe is experiencing this fight most aggressively firsthand, and Sony knows it has many obstacles ahead, which explains its sudden actions.
Let’s play this out. If games are forced to be made and can be accessed on all platforms with just one purchase, that takes a lot of money off the table for developers and console platforms. The music industry I think is a good is a reference point. No one buys music today; everyone subscribes to a platform and downloads games via a license. Using the music model, there is one hiccup for consumers: exclusives. Exclusives would require multiple subscriptions, depending on the games you want to play. We will definitely see a jump in hardware costs to make up for this. Microsoft has already leaked that the next generation of Xbox (code-named Helix) will cost an estimated $1200 to $1800 USD. We all know hardware costs are shooting through the roof; however, I’m sure someone at Microsoft and Sony is accounting for console costs to make up losses elsewhere. This is all speculation, but it’s an interesting conversation. Can AI actually make gaming accessible to all, and are developers already planning for a dramatic industry shift? What’s clear is that big tech looks out only for its bottom line, and it doesn’t care about your property rights or your pursuit of happiness.