Why the World is Falling Out of Love with Traditional Gaming (And How YOM is Fixing It)

YOM

4 min readApr 10, 2026

If you’ve been paying attention to the gaming industry lately, you might have noticed a shift. Console sales are slumping, hardware prices are skyrocketing, and massive AAA studios are struggling to keep their player bases engaged.

Recently, IGN published a compelling article asking a harsh question: Is the world falling out of love with traditional video games? The piece highlighted a traditional gaming model that is buckling under the weight of expensive hardware, shifting consumer attention, and unsustainable business models. But while the legacy industry faces an existential crisis, we at YOM see something else: validation. The walled-garden, hardware-heavy console era is reaching its breaking point. And the solutions to the exact problems IGN highlighted are exactly what we are building right now on the YOM decentralized cloud gaming network.

Here is how YOM’s infrastructure is paving the way for the post-console era.

1. Bypassing “RAMmageddon” with DePIN

The Problem: The traditional gaming industry is facing a severe hardware crunch. With AI giants sweeping up global RAM and SSD supplies, manufacturing costs are surging. The result? Dwindling console sales (Xbox hardware is down 32%) and a future where next-gen consoles like the PS6 could be prohibitively expensive.

The YOM Solution: We are eliminating the hardware barrier entirely. Through our DePIN (Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Network) model, YOM crowd-sources idle gaming GPUs from a global network of PC owners. Gamers no longer need to shell out $500 for a console or $2,000 for a rig just to play the latest titles. Instead, they can stream AAA games directly to the devices they already own, whether that’s a smartphone, tablet, or a low-end laptop.

2. Zero-Friction Play for the Modern Gamer

The Problem: Traditional gaming simply has too much friction. Players are expected to buy expensive hardware, pay $70 upfront, and wait for a 100GB download. In an era of TikTok, instant AI apps, and browser-based entertainment, players are abandoning high-friction AAA titles for immediate, on-the-go experiences.

The YOM Solution: We believe jumping into a game should be as easy as watching a YouTube video. YOM turns AAA gaming into a frictionless, instant experience. Because games on the YOM network are streamed via web links, developers can drop a link in a Telegram chat, a Discord server, or an X feed, and a player can jump into a high-end 3D world instantly. We are capturing the exact mobile and on-the-go audience that traditional consoles are currently bleeding.

3. The True Promise of Cloud Gaming

The Problem: The IGN article notes that players are being “seduced by cloud gaming services” as an alternative to hardware upgrades. However, traditional, centralized cloud gaming (like Xbox Cloud or GeForce Now) requires billions in vulnerable, expensive data center infrastructure.

The YOM Solution: Centralized cloud gaming is a stepping stone; decentralized cloud gaming is the destination. By bringing compute power closer to the end-user via local nodes, YOM achieves sub-12ms latency while cutting infrastructure costs by up to 90%. We make high-performance cloud gaming economically viable and infinitely scalable for the first time.

4. Rescuing Squeezed Publishers with Zero Platform Fees

The Problem: Because hardware and player growth are stagnating, traditional publishers are trying to survive by squeezing their existing bases with aggressive subscription hikes and expensive microtransactions. Furthermore, they are losing 30% of their revenue to the walled-garden taxes of Apple, Google, and console storefronts.

The YOM Solution: YOM flips the economics for game studios. By drastically reducing Customer Acquisition Costs (CAC) and charging zero platform fees, studios get to keep 100% of their revenue. YOM allows developers to self-publish directly to their audience via the web. This makes ambitious new games financially sustainable again, without the need to exploit players just to break even.

Welcome to the Post-Console Era

The traditional gaming industry isn’t dying; it’s evolving. The friction of $70 price tags, massive downloads, and expensive hardware is pushing gamers away. They want accessibility, instant gratification, and high-quality experiences wherever they are.

At YOM, we aren’t just predicting the future of gaming. We are building the infrastructure for it. By decentralizing hardware, eliminating downloads, and moving AAA experiences to frictionless web streams, we are ready to catch the gamers, and the developers, who are ready for something better.

Are you ready to build the future of cloud gaming with us? Join the YOM community on Discord/Telegram and learn how you can run a node or deploy your game today.

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About YOM

YOM is pioneering the first cloud gaming infrastructure (DePIN) that is streaming games, white-label experiences and entirely new entertainment formats at scale to any URL or streaming platform, including Telegram and Discord. Leveraging a distributed network of gaming machines, YOM offers global low-latency near-zero costs cloud gaming to any device and channel, effectively eliminating the need for dedicated game consoles (Xbox, Playstation). The project is backed by a network of advisors and firms such as Outlier Ventures, Avalanche, and Borderless Capital, and is a member of the NVIDIA Inception Program and Google for Startups.