Gaming PC and Games Price Spike – Reasons for the Inflation

As the gaming industry keeps growing, the demand for gaming devices and games is increasing. However, developers are not able to meet the requirements due to the fact that demand these days is far greater than the supply.

As a result, the price of games and gaming devices, such as PCs, is increasing and gamers are not too fond of this development. Even though many would think that companies just want to make riches, there are actually several reasons as to why there’s massive inflation and why the prices may continue to rise.

Chip Shortage

Let’s start with one of the main reasons why PCs and other gaming consoles have become far more expensive than a couple of years ago. Chip shortage is the main issue that major companies are dealing with. After the pandemic hit the world, many companies were forced to close shops or reduce the number of workers. Naturally, that led to a decrease in production and hence, companies weren’t able to meet the standards of yesterday.

Here’s why chip shortage is such a massive problem. These chips are often referred to as semiconductors and without them, the computation process is completely halted. The worst part about it is that pretty much every electrical device that is being produced today needs a semiconductor.

Supply Chain Crisis

Next up, we have the supply chain crisis. The supply chain is the process through which one device, in this case, a gaming PC or a game, goes from the developer’s hands to the consumer. There are several steps that are included in this process.

The materials of a chip are gathered from one place and then transported to a different location for them to be assembled. Then, the completed chip goes to a third location to be integrated with other parts and then, the finished product is shipped to a final destination where consumers can purchase it.

Whenever a step in this process is broken, a problem occurs and that is exactly what companies have been facing. Several supply chain issues have been caused by the pandemic as costs for transportation have increased and the number of workers started decreasing, meaning that transportation wasn’t as effective as it used to be.

The longer it takes for a device to be transported from point A to point B, the more expensive the process becomes and hence, the more expensive the end product will be.

We’ll even use Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II as an example. As you may know, the previous Call of Duty games usually came at a price of $60, but thanks to the modern issues that the industry faces, it was recently revealed that the new release, which will hit the market in October, is priced at $69.99.

Scalping

If you are unaware of what scalping means, this is the process of purchasing a product and reselling it on the market for a higher price. This is yet another major issue that gaming PCs and PC games have become far more expensive.

Scalpers took advantage of the current market situation and were more than aware that it is hard to get your hands on a gaming PC or a PC game. So, they started purchasing these products and reselling them to people that really need them for a higher price.

Some of the platforms where you can come across PCs and games from scalpers are:

eBay
Amazon
Ali Express
Rakuten
Target
Ali Baba

Even though this practice is fairly unethical, scalpers only care about making a profit, which is why the ethical side of the “business” does not concern them a lot.

Mining Data

Data mining these days has never been higher. As the world is being moved towards a digital-only era, a majority of the information is available online. Of course, to store and process this type of data, you need data centres.

The same is related to gaming PCs and PC games, especially those that are played online. The demand for data centres has increased drastically and just like any other device, they need components. The only issue here is that they need these components on an extremely large scale.

Speaking of mining data, cryptocurrencies have been on a massive rise in the past couple of years and mining crypto has become a common process these days. Millions of people have dived into the world of mining and they need GPUs to complete the process.

Once again, the demand has increased, whereas supply has remained the same or decreased. The outcome of this is higher prices.

The Pandemic in General

Finally, we have the pandemic as a whole. COVID-19 caused numerous setbacks and problems in industries that aren’t directly related to the PCs and the gaming industry but affected it majorly. One of those issues is worldwide inflation.

The price of pretty much everything rose and of course, the cost of living has become much higher. As a result, people that are working in the gaming industry demanded higher paychecks. As a way to save their profits while also fulfilling the wishes of employees, companies had no other choice but to lift the prices of their products.

Statistics show that between April 2021 and April 2022, the inflation rate more than doubled. The war in Ukraine did not help as well as the numerous sanctions against Russia had a negative carryover to countries from all around the world as well.