Tech company Micron announced the decision to retire its Crucial brand consumer products in favor of focusing on AI data centers, leading to outrage from gamers and people who build their own computers.
Micron’s announcement shocks gamers
The company confirmed it would wind down its consumer SSD and RAM business to focus on “supply and support for our larger, strategic customers in faster-growing segments.” PC hobbyists had already watched RAM prices climb, and this announcement pushed those stressors into full view. Many builders wondered whether gaming rigs would soon cost as much as high-end workstations.
Micron planned to keep shipping Crucial memory through February 2026, but the exit still signaled one fewer option for everyday buyers. RAM scarcity had already placed pressure on companies like CyberPowerPC and Raspberry Pi. Even HP has been floating the idea that price surges or shrinkflation could be coming.
Instead of a slow fade, Crucial’s exit looks immediate to gamers watching prices triple. For them, this shift doesn’t just shrink options, but rather threatens the affordability of new builds.
Some began recommending upgrades sooner rather than later, since each week has seen more price spikes. Others thought next-gen consoles could ship with less RAM or cost much more at launch. Therefore, builders who hadn’t yet bought parts felt cornered between buying now or paying far more later.
Gamers react online
Social media platforms are flooded with frustrated reactions to the news.
TikToker @tonyceno reacted with disbelief, arguing that every computing device needed RAM and now AI companies held all the leverage. “It’s over gang. The dream is dead. RAM prices have already skyrocketed in the past few days. […] Every time we come this close to having something fire, somebody [expletive] it up in the name of profit. Get that PC now gang, you don’t have long.”
He suggested that the Steam Machine, which had yet to be priced while the company waited for the future of RAM to be clearer, was going to skyrocket in price because of this.
Meanwhile, @jacobweeby posted a skit showing a confused gamer responding to Micron’s imagined corporate announcement. He suggested RAM scarcity could push consoles near $1,000 and make PC builds even more costly. He also joked that AI data centers resembled something from The Matrix, implying that everyday users had become the trade-off.
@jacobweeby HUGE AI L 😭 #steam #xbox #gaming #skit #fyp ♬ Dirtmouth (From “Hollow Knight”) – Torby Brand
Another creator, @officialcrazylegs, argued that companies chased profit by abandoning consumers. “We are already seeing the impact,” he said. “Tom’s Hardware did a check on Amazon and found that on average the price climbed over 240% on 100 listings. 240! Cyberpower have come out and said that they are gonna have to change their price structure because of how much more expensive RAM is now because of AI.”
Reddit threads echoed those concerns. u/Little-Bowl-7762 wrote, “When the next-gen consoles come out, it’s going to cost more to upgrade the storage on them than the actual price of the console.”
u/koolaidismything added, “AI isn’t even making the investors wealthy.. It’s just ruined everything, and the people who do like it are cause they are stupid and like to have answers without learning anything.”
u/Jackmoved noted, “Weird. This is pricing out consumers. Who will even be able to afford to utilize AI? Computers, consoles, and phones are going to cost too much to even bother with. Then all this AI just being unused except by governments?”
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