The RAM Apocalypse: Why Gaming Got So Expensive (And What To Do About It) (Ep.89)

Al, Drexy, and a jet-lagged Joe tackle whether modern strategy gaming has priced itself out of reach, weighing skyrocketing RAM and hardware costs against inflation-adjusted game pricing, unfinished AAA launches propped up by DLC, and a growing case for turning to mods, backlogs, and scrappy indie publishers instead.

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This episode tackles rising gaming costs from multiple angles, sparked by Drexy’s concerns about a “RAM apocalypse” driving up hardware prices alongside an underwhelming, overpriced Steam Machine launch. The conversation moves through Civilization’s pricing history (which, adjusted for inflation, shows Civ 7 as actually cheaper than Civ 4), the cost-per-hour value proposition of deeply-played strategy games like Stellaris and Cities Skylines, and growing frustration with AAA titles releasing unfinished as vehicles for future DLC. The hosts build a case for community-driven solutions: leaning on backlogs, supporting scrappy publishers like Hooded Horse, and reviving beloved but abandoned titles through total-conversion mods, citing real examples like Sword of the Stars 2’s troubled legacy and Command & Conquer: Generals’ community-maintained source code.

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Critical Moves Podcast – Episode 89 Show Notes

Episode Title: Is Modern Gaming Too Expensive?
Hosts: Al, Drexy, Joe
Episode Length: ~49 minutes

Episode Summary

This episode examines whether strategy gaming has become financially unsustainable for average players, opening with Drexy’s concerns about a dramatic rise in RAM and hardware prices coinciding with an expensive, underpowered Steam Machine launch. The hosts debate whether game pricing itself is genuinely excessive, using Civilization’s pricing history across four decades to argue that inflation-adjusted costs have actually remained flat or decreased, before shifting to examine unfinished AAA launches propped up by planned DLC cycles, the value of deeply-played strategy games on a cost-per-hour basis, and a growing case for community-driven solutions: supporting scrappy indie publishers, embracing gaming backlogs, and reviving beloved abandoned titles through dedicated modding communities.

The RAM Apocalypse and Hardware Costs

Drexy opens by describing a dramatic recent spike in RAM prices, attributed to AI companies purchasing storage and memory at scale, alongside the newly released Steam Machine launching well above anticipated pricing (over $1,000 versus expected $600-800 estimates). He notes rising concern that next-generation consoles, including a rumored delayed PlayStation 6, may also launch above $1,000, creating access barriers for strategy gamers who don’t typically need top-tier GPUs but still require increasingly expensive baseline hardware to run newer titles like Total War: Warhammer III at reasonable settings.

Laptop Gaming and Backlog Strategy as Workarounds

Joe notes his own gaming laptop purchase slipped in before recent price increases and suggests laptop prices may have risen less steeply than desktop components, though he acknowledges potential bias. Both Joe and Al point to the group’s own recent “Pile of Shame” backlog episode as a practical response: with hundreds or thousands of unplayed games already owned, there’s little need to chase the newest, most demanding titles.

Reviving Old Games Through Mods

Drexy highlights Forge of Heroes, a fan mod for Heroes of Might and Magic II that modernizes the UI and adds HD support, as an example of how community modding can make decades-old games fully viable on modern systems without requiring hardware upgrades.

Civilization’s Pricing History and Inflation

Al challenges the premise that games have become significantly more expensive, citing specific launch prices: Civilization IV (2005, $50), Civ V (2010, $50), Civ VI (2016, $60), and Civ VII (2025, $70). When adjusted for inflation, he argues Civ IV’s $50 launch price would equal roughly $85 today, meaning Civ VII is actually priced lower in real terms than its 20-year-old predecessor. Joe pushes back sharply, noting his own disappointment with Civ VII’s quality despite the higher price tag, arguing that consumers are paying more for what he considers an inferior experience.

Development Costs, Console Ports, and Wage Stagnation

Al and Drexy discuss additional cost pressures behind rising game prices, including the substantially larger development teams and testing requirements needed for simultaneous console and PC releases, while acknowledging that consumer wages have not kept pace with inflation at the same rate as game development costs.

DLC as a Deliberate Squeeze Tactic

Joe raises Total War: Warhammer’s infamous “Blood for the Blood God” DLC, which charged players separately to enable blood and gore effects removed to satisfy German content ratings, as an example of features being deliberately stripped and resold rather than included standard.

The Case for Hooded Horse and Smaller Publishers

Both hosts advocate for redirecting spending toward smaller, more focused publishers like Hooded Horse and MicroProse, which release games requiring less demanding hardware and often deliver more complete experiences at launch. Joe reveals he purchased Menace live during the recording as a direct result of the conversation.

Cost-Per-Hour Value: Stellaris and Cities Skylines

Al offers a counterargument built around entertainment value per dollar, noting his roughly 7,000 hours each in Stellaris and Cities Skylines (including DLC purchases) reduces the effective cost per hour to a negligible amount compared to other entertainment options like cinema tickets, suggesting deeply-played strategy games may represent genuinely strong value despite higher upfront costs.

Mods as a Double-Edged Sword for Developers

Al describes returning to Cities Skylines I after finding Cities Skylines II underwhelming, crediting the original’s mod ecosystem for extending its relevance. He notes this creates tension for developers: mods extend a game’s lifespan and player satisfaction but generate no additional revenue, and may have influenced Paradox’s decision to bring Cities Skylines II’s modding tools in-house rather than relying on Steam Workshop.

Reviving Abandoned Strategy IPs

Drexy proposes a community-driven approach to reviving strategy games abandoned mid-development or left commercially unsuccessful, citing Command & Conquer: Generals and Zero Hour as a precedent, where EA’s release of the source code allowed the community to create Generals Gentool, a modernized, 64-bit-compatible version. He specifically highlights Sword of the Stars II as a game he considers a prime candidate for this treatment, describing its troubled development history: a public dispute between developer Kerberos Games and publisher Paradox Interactive left the game in legal and technical limbo, with Paradox retaining ownership of source code Kerberos cannot release, despite a partial community decompilation effort that was eventually abandoned due to its difficulty.

Battle for Middle-earth and The Movies as Lost IP

Joe nominates Battle for Middle-earth and The Movies as beloved titles trapped under corporate ownership with no development interest, expressing frustration that companies retain IP rights without any intention of revisiting them, while indie attempts to recreate The Movies’ filmmaking mechanics have failed to fully capture the original’s appeal.

Are Indie Studios Simply Out-Innovating AAA?

The hosts discuss whether major studios remain necessary for genre innovation, citing indie and small-team successes like Manor Lords, Disco Elysium, Slay the Spire, and No Man’s Sky (whose post-launch redemption arc Drexy credits partly to independent ownership allowing continued investment that a major publisher likely would have abandoned). Al raises a counter-concern that if audiences abandon AAA studios entirely, ambitious sequel development (such as a hypothetical Civilization VIII) might simply cease.

The Risk of Never Supporting New Releases

Al pushes back on the idea of collectively boycotting new releases in favor of older, mod-supported titles, questioning whether this risks starving franchises like Europa Universalis or Crusader Kings of the resources needed for future sequels. Drexy counters that since new Paradox releases (citing EU5 and CK3’s own multi-year development arcs to reach parity with predecessors) are reliably unpolished for years after launch anyway, delaying purchases until a game matures doesn’t meaningfully harm long-term franchise viability.

Refusing Day-One Purchases as Consumer Pressure

Drexy argues that consistently pre-ordering or day-one purchasing unfinished games, as he claims some Civ 7 buyers did despite prior disappointment with Civ 6, actively enables publishers to continue releasing incomplete products. He advocates for waiting until reviews confirm quality before purchasing, framing mass day-one buying (driven by FOMO) as directly undermining any leverage consumers might otherwise have.

Football Manager’s Delisting of Older Versions

Drexy raises a specific grievance: Sports Interactive/SEGA has delisted all previous Football Manager titles from storefronts, leaving only the current (and by his account, poorly received) release purchasable, preventing players from choosing to buy an older, better-regarded version instead. Al speculates this could potentially relate to licensing requirements tied to maintaining current league and player data rights, though this remains unconfirmed speculation rather than a stated explanation.

GOG’s Community Voting System for Preservation

Drexy highlights GOG’s community upvoting system, which allows users to nominate older games for licensing and re-release, as a legitimate avenue for pushing publishers toward preserving access to older titles that might otherwise become difficult to legally obtain or run on modern systems.

Closing Consumer Reflection

Joe concludes by stating his personal policy going forward: avoiding day-one or pre-release purchases entirely in favor of confirmed-quality titles or returning to his existing backlog, name-checking Terra Invicta and his newly purchased Menace as his planned near-term focus.

Contact & Links

Episode Verdict

This episode succeeds by resisting easy consensus — Al’s inflation-adjusted pricing data genuinely complicates the “games are too expensive” narrative in a way the hosts don’t simply wave away, and Joe’s pushback grounded in his own Civ 7 disappointment keeps the data-driven argument honest rather than letting statistics settle the emotional reality of a bad purchase. The Sword of the Stars II segment stands out as the episode’s most substantive concrete example, illustrating exactly how publisher-developer disputes can permanently strand a game regardless of community interest in reviving it. The Football Manager delisting discussion, while less resolved, raises a genuinely underdiscussed consumer issue worth listeners’ attention. The episode’s closing call for mod recommendations gives it a practical, community-oriented endpoint rather than ending on pure complaint, consistent with the show’s recurring theme of channeling frustration with the industry into actionable alternatives.