The skyrocketing cost of memory driven by AI was a major topic at this year’s GDC. If you didn’t bring it up with someone in a conversation, it was because they did first. It was one of the most important narratives of the show, casting a shadow over Xbox’s grand Project Helix ambitions and raising questions about how rising prices could impact how games are made. No developer I spoke to quite knew the next steps for navigating the crisis, but several saw it as a moment to finally have a serious conversation about the industry’s insatiable hunt to create the most high-end games possible.