With Steam Decks selling out and Game Pass' future uncertain, how will the next generation play games at all?

I was so excited for the Steam Machine. The new one, not the failed experiment from 2015. Alas, skyrocketing RAM prices seem to have killed my dream of plugging in a simple box and playing through my Steam library from the comfort of my couch. The same component crisis has impacted Steam Decks, too, with many variants selling out and many players fearing price hikes in the near future. All this comes in tandem with turmoil at Xbox, which suggests the Game Pass experiment may be considered a failure. With no subscription service and cheap hardware a thing of the past, I can't help but wonder how the next generation will play videogames at all?

I got into videogames because I won a competition. The prize? A GameBoy Advance. I worked my way up through the consoles as I got older, trading in my previous one for an upgrade. I made my way through the Nintendo DS, the PSP, until I arrived at my first proper console, the Xbox 360. As a student, I built my first PC and a whole new world of games opened up to me. I don't think the next generation will have this pathway available to them.

The first problem is RAM prices. As a result of AI tech bros buying up non-existent RAM to furnish as-yet-unbuilt data centers, the price of components has risen sharply. Building a PC is practically impossible nowadays, and the cost of components is impacting consoles, too. The Steam Deck is out of stock due to shortages, the Steam Machine has been delayed, and all three traditional console manufacturers - Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo - are considering price increases for their already extremely expensive hardware.

For years, Xbox Game Pass has been considered an alternative. Thanks to Play Anywhere and the surprisingly smooth cloud gaming offerings of the subscription service, you didn't need to buy a three-figure piece of hardware to play the latest games. But the latest shakeup of Xbox's leadership may suggest that this experiment is considered to have failed, and I wouldn't bank on Game Pass lasting for much longer if that's the case.

I'm not going to write another thinkpiece about the changing of the guard at Microsoft, or about the fact that the incoming Xbox CEO has a background in AI or hasn't played enough games. You can read all that elsewhere. But the sudden shift in personnel suggests that expectations haven't been met, and seeing as Xbox has been all-in on Game Pass for the entirety of Phil Spencer's stewardship, I wouldn't bank on it sticking around.

I won't say for sure that Game Pass is doomed - none of us could know that, barring perhaps incoming CEO Asha Sharma - but its future is uncertain, to say the least. And, say what you want for the service, it was a great way for low-income families to access the latest games. With hardware prices reaching eyewatering levels and the Game Pass lifeline potentially faltering, how will the kids of tomorrow play videogames?

The tech CEOs want to continue the legacy of Game Pass. They want you to rent your PC from the cloud, logging into their vast data centers in order to play GTA 7. In their ideal world, this would be the only valid alternative as they'd have hiked up PC prices to multiple thousands of dollars by enforcing scarcity. What little ownership we have of our hobby would be eroded further still.

Who knows what the corporate shakeup truly means for Xbox? Will the follow up to the Series X truly be a PC of sorts? Will those plans be scrapped? It's impossible to say. But what I will say is that I'm worried for the future. Our hobby should be accessible, it should be affordable, and above all it should be ownable. Who knows if any of that will remain true in the future.