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As tech enthusiasts and gamers, are we not all sick and tired of being punching

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bags? >> Yeah. >> Yeah. I mean, not only does it feel like

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truly innovative new gadgets are few and far between these days, but the prices

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for them have gone from expensive to ridiculous faster than a cod lobby turns

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racist. And the worst part, the worst part is the reason for it. These chips

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that are supposed to be affordable aren't because they're being hoarded by

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a bunch of jackasses for the sole purpose of creating the giant slob

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creature that's trying to take our jobs.

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Is there any good news? [sighs] Yes, there is a lot of bad stuff

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happening right now, but a part of the problem is the way that rage bait

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generates more clicks, incentivizing negative news to spread. And so I think

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it's more important than ever [music] to take a step back and appreciate some of

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the positive things happening in tech because there's actually a lot more

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happening than most of us probably realize. For starters, some really smart

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creators have demonstrated how unsustainable the current AI bubble is,

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which gives me real hope that while AI and some form is clearly here to stay,

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this dystopian tech bro infinite money glitch dumpster fire isn't.

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And there are even upsides to some of the things that get us down. No one

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likes waiting longer for a new console or a GPU, but everyone likes it when

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developers optimize their new games for those older systems, especially when the

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broader economy is suffering. And while Microsoft seems determined to make

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Windows 11 as crappy as possible, in the

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background, the year of the Linux desktop is quickly turning from a meme

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into a reality. Just like I'm turning this Segue into our sponsor.

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[laughter] Do you hear that?

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That's the sound of all the people that had to help me set up my new Rove Lab M1

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sofa. [laughter]

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Yes. [laughter] Oh, you know, it's easy to get lost in

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the recent headlines and overlook just how much cheaper consumer technology has

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actually become compared to just about any other time in my life. I mean, it's

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tempting for us to think, well, of course there'll be a new chip next year

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that's better in every way and also less expensive. But my recent factory tours

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over in Asia really opened my eyes to the incredible talent. Not to mention

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the R&D expense that goes into making everything from tiny SSDs to giant TVs

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as affordable as possible for us. I mean, look at this glue robot for

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instance. They built this for the express purpose of saving just a few

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pennies per TV. That doesn't sound like

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much, but it's this kind of obsessive optimization that has enabled flat

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screen TVs to completely defy inflation

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for decades now in spite of ever rising materials and labor costs. So, when

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people ask me, how do you keep your joy and enthusiasm for tech? That's the

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first thing I think of. Even more broadly, as the price of food, fuel, and

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housing has skyrocketed relative to earnings, consumer tech items like VR

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headsets, cell phones, game consoles, cameras, and gaming PCs have continually

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leveled up in their capabilities while staying within [music] or at least

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pretty close to their traditional price bands. And that's even after the insane

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pricing surges that we've seen in GPUs and more recently the RAM apocalypse.

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Look, I'm not going to tell you everything is as affordable as I'd like

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it to be or as it should be. I literally

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just wrote a video about how awful the RAM situation is. But I do think part of

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the path to greener mental pastures is reminding ourselves that a dollar buys a

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lot more tech today than it ever has.

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Today, you can build an $800 gaming PC with a 12 GB GPU that will handle

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high-end 1080p and even 1440p gaming.

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And that includes a free copy of Battlefielding 6. In 1993, that would

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have gotten you, let's see, not even this PC that was so mind-bogglingly

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affordable that the LA Times wrote an article about it. Obviously, I

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understand that that is not an apples to apples comparison. Back then, an entire

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family would have shared that one computer. But the modern world demands

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everyone have access to their own device to function now. But hey, if you're only

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after basic functionality, the price floor goes even lower. Chromebooks, they

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might not be the sexiest thing, but they are regularly available at prices that

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would allow a family of five to each have their own device for what is still

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less than that 1993 PC. And that's even

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ignoring inflation. >> Of course, not everyone wants a

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Chromebook. So, what about the enthusiast here? Same thing. Here's an

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ultimate 4K gaming build that we did 11

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years ago. By basically every single

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measure, modern buyers have it better.

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here. Without putting any work or research into this, I can just click on

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magnificent AMD gaming/streaming PC on

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the front page of PC part picker [music] and get a machine that's over $1,000

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less and is better in every conceivable way. Sometimes I think we get a little

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lost in the sauce when it comes to performance expectations. There are

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absolutely poorly optimized titles. Looking at you, City Skylines 2. But in

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general, I think we have to come to accept that 8 million pixels is a lot.

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It was hard to drive then and it's hard to drive now, especially as gamers

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expectations for lighting and visual fidelity continue to grow. The PC gaming

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industry has smacked us around a little, but [music] it's by and large been

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pretty good to us. >> And we're not just talking about the hardware. I picked up a copy of an older

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AA game the other day so that my daughter and I could play it together.

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It was under $5. Truly, glory be to Gay

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Ben, who hath blessed us with his winter sale bounty. And okay, yeah, not

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everyone wants to play a 17-year-old strategy game. But how about this? I

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also just picked up Expedition 33, the literal game of the year for just over

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$40. I mean, when I was a kid, I paid

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$50 for Pilot Wings, which would barely even qualify as a Mario Party miniame

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these days. And I get that this might come across a little bit back in my day,

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but I [music] do generally stand behind my belief that gaming is pound-for-pound

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the best value entertainment that you can buy. Five out of six of the game of

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the year nominees this year can be had for less than $50. And each of them will

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last you many hours. And that's something we should take a moment to

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appreciate. Do it. Drop a little note to your favorite indie game developer. I'm

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sure it's going to brighten their day. I picked Radical Fish.

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So, mathematically then, there's a

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pretty easy case that we shouldn't be mad at the talented people who create

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the products and experiences that we love so much. And yet, we are mad. We're

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super mad. So, why is that?

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Well, that's going to be a deep one to unpack because it is both kind of hard

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to justify as we've demonstrated already and yet still also completely

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understandable. Let's talk about that. I don't know about you, but my housing

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costs have gone from less than 20% of my monthly expenses to above 40%. So, sure,

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yeah, my Xbox controller might cost the same as it did 18 years ago, but the

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share of my disposable income that I can allocate to it is being chipped away on

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all sides. And I recognize that I am one of the lucky ones. I didn't go into

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major debt for school. My parents gave me a deal on my first car, and I stayed

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healthy enough that I've never missed more than a couple days of work for a hockey injury, you know, here or there.

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When you feel like things have gotten harder, it's not your imagination and it

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sure as hell isn't your avocado toast.

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You are right to be tired of hearing um

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actually it's not more expensive if you account for inflation. Yes, inflation is

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part of the equation, but it doesn't tell the whole story. And it can also be

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a way to justify the rising cost of everything and normalize

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corporate greed that directly affects wages. A better measure of affordability

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over time is consumer buying power,

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which has fallen behind inflation for decades. Couple that with corporate

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consolidation and the new threat of AI, it's no wonder people are at their

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breaking points. But I do want to make

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sure that we're not muddling our passion for technology and our anger about the

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state of the world. Let's look at the affordability of tech a different

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[music] way by tracking it relative to wage growth, which is broadly considered

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a more representative measure than just raw inflation. According to Fred, from

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1995 to 2024, there was just over a 40%

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increase in real median personal income.

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That means that if we compare the $300 launch price of the PS1 to the current

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price of the PS5, we're actually tracking pretty damn close. Not with

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inflation, but with realworld wage

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increases. [music] Yes, I know that the base PS5 doesn't

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come with a Blu-ray drive, free cloud saves, or even online play, but neither

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did the PS1. And it's not hard to find

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similar examples where the tech industry has come through for us, delivering more

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value over time rather than less. It's

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also not that hard to find areas where we've been let down. Though hard gotcha

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mechanics and in-game gambling have created financial incentives for

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developers to prey on people with addictive personalities, which is something I fell victim to. I actually

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opened up about it on WAN Show. It really sucks. With that said, I might

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just be the biggest PS1 fanboy this side of Pluto. And even I will literally slap

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anyone who says that it provides a better overall experience for most

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people than a PS5. [music] It was incredible. It was influential.

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It was my personal favorite. But let's be honest, the PS5 library has way more

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games that people want to play today. And while few of them are PS5 titles in

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the traditional exclusive sense, that's great. Better access to games is what we

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were fighting for, right? I mean, not everything's going our way, but hey,

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it's good to celebrate wins, right? And crossplatform compatibility was a huge

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one for both consumer choice and for affordability. Same goes for things like

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removable media. Do you remember when saving your game meant buying a

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proprietary 128 kilobyte memory card for

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almost $20? Now I can just pull the SD

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card out of my Switch and throw it into my laptop. And this move towards

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industry standards affects more than just gaming. The introduction of USBC

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LT cables coming soon by the way was a watershed moment. I mean, many of you

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will remember that not that long ago,

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every single device you owned had a proprietary charger and a proprietary

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cable so that the manufacturer could milk you for accessory profit. [music]

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These days, you can pack a single power brick into your LT backpack and that'll

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work with your ASUS laptop, your Valve Team Deck, your Apple iPhone, your

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Nintendo Switch, your UG Green Power Bank, your Sennheiser headphones, and your Sony camera. Wow, that all fits in

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there, huh? Nice. ltstore.com.

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But while I meme on it obviously often,

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it's also important for me to point out that you don't need to buy this or

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[music] any of the stuff that goes in it. >> Yeah. Or any of the shiny gadgets that

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we show off on this channel. This is going to rub some people the wrong way.

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But I think a big part of why we're so angry right now is the unrealistic

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standards that social media creates. When Lionus grew up, there were cell

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phones that cost $2,000. It's just that his parents didn't have it. But it

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didn't bother them because no one we knew had them. But now, when I go to a

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creator convention, there are literally people who gave me funny looks because I

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didn't have an iPhone at the time to tap and exchange information. I mean, even

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on channels that aren't constantly telling us that we need the latest and

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greatest. Here are a few recent LTS about deal hunting and getting the most

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out of what you already have. It can be hard to unsee the performance of a 5090

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on a tandem OLED display, and I get why that can be frustrating. But does that

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mean that we shouldn't cover them? LT

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has always covered cutting edge technologies, knowing that it's a dream

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for most people today, but thanks to the magic of rich people buying two of them,

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they're just going to become more accessible over time, either as the

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technology matures or more directly on the secondhand market. I think another

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issue is the way that some media frame this conversation. Telling you to be

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angry that a video card exists, but it

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was never targeted at the 99%. I don't

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have a 5090. Should I feel bad about my PC? no. I'm running a B580 and

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yeah, maybe I can't run the latest games with all the bells and whistles at 4K,

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but I don't need that to enjoy myself, do I? And frankly, neither do you. Even

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if you're still running a second gen i5 and NVIDIA GTX 1030, there is a wild

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world of older emulated games that can be enjoyed on even modest hardware,

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often for free. We've said it before, but it's worth saying again. The point

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of this video, guys, is not to minimize the very real frustration that you and

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[music] your family and friends might be facing right now. It is valid to be mad,

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[music] maybe even cynical and jaded. But just because it's valid, does that

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necessarily mean it's helpful? Like, I could be pissed that Halo Infinite will

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never get a split screen co-op mode, and I am a little, but I could also be

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excited for the coming surge of co-opcentric games that look freaking

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awesome. I could be mad that the PlayStation 6 is likely going to be

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delayed, not to mention more expensive because of the RAM apocalypse, and I am.

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But okay, bright side, I can also be happy that in these trying times,

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Rockstar is going to be forced to optimize GTA 6 for the hardware that

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gamers already own. I could also be disappointed that the Steam Machine

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isn't a cuttingedge FPS monster. But

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maybe it was time for someone with the influence of Valve to normalize just

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enjoying PC games rather than hyperfixating on graphical fidelity

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while also low-key ending the Windows gaming monopoly. The point is that tech

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is supposed to help you. It's supposed to make your life better. It's not

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supposed to dictate [music] your mood. And if you're already working on an

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angry comment about this video, I offer you this,

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a reminder that your mental health doesn't need to be shaped by tech bros

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who don't give a about you. Staying mad doesn't mean that you're being

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effective in the resistance. It just means that you are unhappy, which is a

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real downer. Like I don't even feel like doing the segue to our sponsor.

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Huh? Huh?

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Oh.

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Huh?

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[laughter]

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>> [sighs]

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>> Rove Lab is running a huge sale on the M1 sofa, but it won't last long. Head to

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the website before it's gone. If you guys enjoyed this video, we'd

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love to hear [music] a few things that you're excited for or grateful for in

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the tech space or even in the world. We could all use a little positivity these

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days. And if you want more positivity, go hug a loved one, take a walk while

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listening to your favorite album of all time, or maybe go watch the video that I

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got to make with my son recently [music] about him choosing a Kindle.