Amazon Says Memory Crunch Threatens Consoles, Boosts Cloud Gaming

Artificial-intelligence data centers are absorbing memory and storage capacity, tightening supplies and raising component costs for console makers and PC vendors. Amazon sees that pressure as a potential inflection point for Luna, its cloud-gaming service, which runs games in data centers and streams them to users without requiring an expensive dedicated machine. The economics matter because higher hardware prices could exclude more consumers and broaden the market for services that deliver console-style games through televisions, browsers and other connected devices.

Amazon games general manager Jeffrey Gattis told The Game Business in a July 23 interview that industry rumors point to 10th-generation consoles costing more than $1,000 because of the RAM crisis. He said roughly 3 billion people play video games worldwide, while only 300 million to 500 million dedicated gaming devices are in use. Amazon has added Luna to the Prime Video app, offering titles including EA Sports FC 26, Hogwarts Legacy and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, and aims to reach tens of millions of players within five years.