RAM Supply Has Dried Up, Everyone
RAMageddon has hit a new milestone. Halo Studios has managed to avoid mass layoffs following the release of the remake (for now). Interestingly, piracy can sometimes boost awareness for an indie gem. A wild update has surfaced for August 7, 2026, and after a long week, I’m craving a $20 burrito. Let’s tie up some loose ends and move on!
According to a recent report, it’s all gone. Industry insiders have revealed that Samsung, SK hynix, and Micron have completely sold out of their DRAM and high bandwidth memory (HBM) through 2027. Everyone has claimed their share, and there’s no extra supply. Game over, man.
The ongoing shortages have been a hot topic for months, with AI companies hoarding components for data centers in a race to dominate the internet. This has forced manufacturers, especially those in gaming hardware, to keep raising prices. Analysts predict this chaos won’t settle down by 2027, with some suggesting prices could continue to climb into 2028.
What’s the fix? Apparently, it’s to start selling hardware with less RAM.
Alinea Analytics has estimated that the surprise ports of Call of Duty: Black Ops 1 and 2 for PS4 and PS5 have sold a staggering 11.2 million copies. Previously, these games were stuck on PS3 for PlayStation users (though they remained accessible via backwards compatibility on Xbox). Notably, this figure dwarfs the sales of the Halo remake, which marked the franchise’s debut on PlayStation. Alinea Analytics noted that the Xbox franchise only managed to sell 351,000 copies on PS5 in July, despite being a complete visual overhaul in Unreal Engine 5 with new missions. In contrast, Black Ops 1 and 2, seemingly rushed out to boost last year’s Black Ops 7, received minimal enhancements.
Earlier this week, it was reported that some individuals involved in Halo: Campaign Evolved were laid off. While this is accurate, the speculation of a mass layoff event following the game’s release is not. A source within Xbox clarified that those posting about being let go from Halo Studios were external contractors, not full-time employees. “No layoffs have occurred at Halo Studios,” the source stated. “There are often shifts with external contractors after a game launches, which is what people are noticing.”
The studio, founded by industry veterans in 2021, recently unveiled its first game, a new entry in the multiplayer shooter series Crossfire, featuring a complex cover system. However, some team members working on the game have reported layoffs on LinkedIn. The studio has yet to comment on the reasons for these cuts or the number of individuals affected. Crossfire is in development for console and PC but currently lacks a release date.
QuakeCon 2026 is happening right now in Texas, and id Software co-founder John Romero shared a fascinating story about the early days of Doom. He discussed how the shareware model of the ’80s and ’90s, which encouraged the distribution of incomplete copies of the FPS, led to significant piracy. Boxes would appear on store shelves containing unauthorized copies of the game. Surprisingly, this wasn’t entirely negative; it helped the game reach a much broader audience than it would have through official channels.
“We were totally happy with that,” Romero explained. “We were doing so much work just getting the game out. We knew in Taiwan that they were copying it: 100 percent, that was the market back then. So we contacted the biggest pirates there and said, ‘Can you buy boxes from us? Really cheap. Really really cheap.’ So they bought tons of boxes off of us, making it legitimate.”
He added, “Get it out there, make them feel good. We made money when people would actually order the rest of the game. We didn’t try to profit off the shareware version.”
