- Larian Studios CEO highlights impact of RAM crisis on game development
- Reports of more 8GB RAM and VRAM configurations suggest more difficult game development in terms of optimizations.
- It could be very positive for better PC ports
While the current RAM crisis that has affected manufacturers’ prices has also affected consumers, it is not the only knock-on effect that will occur until 2026, and the CEO of a popular game developer has spoken out.
In an interview with The Gamer, Larian Studios CEO Swen Vincke stated that RAM price increases will impact game development, specifically because additional work will be required for game optimization in the recently announced Divinity game. It comes shortly after reports suggested we could see more 8GB RAM and VRAM configurations in 2026.
With costs rising for consumers, 8GB of RAM and VRAM (on GPU) for custom gaming PC setups may become common, as any hardware with higher capabilities will likely cost a fortune. This has already started: some RAM kits cost more than entire consoles. Vincke fears this will complicate the game’s development, and that’s a reasonable assessment.
“Other [issue Larian is facing] “It’s really the price of RAM and the price of SSDs,” Vincke said. “It’s like we literally never had it like this.”
“This means that we will most likely already need to do a lot of optimization work in early access that we didn’t necessarily want to do at the time.”
It’s a tough pill to swallow for the game developers they work on. Divinity, and many other games in production at various studios. However, this can prove to be a big win for PC gamers.
There’s no denying how poor PC ports (and some console ports) have been in recent years, with many games released with performance and optimization issues, and a heavy reliance on upscaling and frame generation from Nvidia or AMD via DLSS and FSR, respectively.
With more 8GB configurations on the way, especially Valve’s Steam Machine, which will launch using 8GB of VRAM, the RAM crisis will force game developers to focus on optimizing games for devices with more limited specifications, which in turn will prevent games from launching in poor quality states along with promises of future patches to fix problems and the use of frame interpolation as a band-aid solution.
Analysis: The RAM crisis is bad news for gamers and this is the only victory I can see
The rise of AI is not slowing down anytime soon, it seems, which is the main cause of the RAM crisis. I’m afraid we haven’t seen the full scale of the impact it will have on PC and console gaming so far, and the only positive sign I see at the moment is the potential for better game optimization.
Now, there’s always the possibility of even more reliance on upscaling and framing once 8GB configurations become the focus of game developers. However, I’ve seen the 8GB VRAM limits on even the best gaming laptops and other gaming PCs (with discrete desktop GPUs) maxed out in demanding games, and that won’t sit well with gamers.
Better game optimization not only benefits consumers with low-end hardware, due to consistent and stable frame rates, but is also a benefit for high-end users, who have spent hundreds of dollars on powerful hardware, only to suffer poor performance due to lack of optimization.
It will be a step in the right direction for developers and consumers, and perhaps encourage gamers to report bad PC ports more frequently.
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