‘The reason why we’re so beloved in the videogame industry and we’re so deep in it still is, in a lot of ways, we created the modern videogame industry’ says Nvidia CEO Huang

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang spoke at the Morgan Stanley Media and Telecom Conference yesterday, and, yes, AI and a celebration of Nvidia’s recent successes were very much on the table.

After a somewhat subdued opening (“Wow, no music, no walk on music, no roaring applause?” said Huang, jokingly), the Nvidia head honcho got down to the business of explaining how his company developed into the titan it is today, and its importance to the videogame industry.

“Well, the answer is, as it turns out, we started the company with the idea of creating a new computing platform, a new way of doing computing” said Huang.

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“And the type of things that we were extremely good at are algorithms, because the inner loop of the software tends to be about 5% of the code, but 99% of the compute time. And back then, the algorithms in the world of computers was quite rare. And one of the most important algorithms was computer graphics, the simulation of light and how light travels through space.”

“And so while computer graphics was used for things like animation movies… it was during that time where computer graphics was becoming more capable, and we could simulate virtual reality with it, and we applied it to creating a new industry, which did not exist at the time called videogames.”

(Image credit: Nvidia)

“And so 3D graphics was modernized in my time, consumerized in my time”, Huang continued. “And the whole videogame industry was created in my time.”

Which is… quite the bold claim, I guess. Allowing for hyperbole, it’s difficult to underestimate the impact of Nvidia’s graphics technology on the games industry as a whole, although I think many will (correctly) argue that videogames have been a thing since… oooh, the 70s at least. Perhaps even the late 40s, depending on who you ask.

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And while I suppose you could debate the term “videogame industry”, I think it’s difficult to argue with the fact that the concept started long before Huang was born, and developed while he was still wearing short trousers.

However, Huang seemed keen to qualify his comments. “And when I say in my time, meaning it was Nvidia that pulled it all together”, he opined.

“The reason why we’re so beloved in the videogame industry and we’re so deep in it still is, in a lot of ways, we created the modern videogame industry.

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“From the algorithms associated with it, the libraries. In the computer graphics industry, without RTX, there would be nothing today. Without our contribution of all the algorithms that goes into all of the game engines, you wouldn’t be able to enjoy the type of videogames you enjoy today. So Nvidia has been deep in the world of algorithms since day one, 33 years ago.”

(Image credit: Nvidia)

“Today, if you look at Epic’s Unreal Engine, Nvidia’s technology is all over it,” Huang said. “And you go into every game developer, Nvidia’s technology is all over. That’s the reason why all the games run best on Nvidia for good reason. That’s the reason why Nvidia is the world’s largest game platform.”

Where to start, where to start. Certainly, Nvidia’s graphics technology is deeply rooted inside modern hardware and game development, engines, and the impact of CUDA and various other GPU developments is extremely important to the history of the medium.

Beloved, however, is an interesting term. From a developer standpoint, I would say that choosing not to work with Nvidia at this point would be a massive, critical mistake, as Nvidia graphics cards continue to dominate the Steam Hardware Survey to an astonishing degree. In terms of being beloved by PC gamers overall, though, I think that might be something of a stretch.

(Image credit: Future)

From graphics card pricing that continues to bite (although supply chains being what they are, it’s a complicated issue), to Multi Frame Generation doubts, and the odd VRAM debate, the relationship between Nvidia and its GPU-purchasing customers hasn’t always been a smooth one.

On the flipside, ray tracing and upscaling efforts have changed the way we game considerably, and it was Nvidia that flew the flag for both early on. As for gamer’s opinions on the tech, though? They tend to vary.

And while I don’t subscribe to the whole team green, team red tribalism between fans of Nvidia graphics cards and AMD equivalents (give me the fastest I can buy for a reasonable price and I’m happy), Huang’s words seem like they may stoke the flames of some old grudges and debates.

Nevertheless, Huang seems more than happy to take a victory lap at this point. And sitting as he does at the head of the world’s most valuable company, raking in huge amounts of revenue from the AI boom, I suppose that’s the privilege that you get. Nvidia’s contributions to both gaming and AI proliferation are genuinely world changing, that much is true.

But these days, it’s difficult not to feel that, as gamers, we’re very much down the priority list. Even if, as Huang points out, the tech inside modern games owes a whole lot to the big green behemoth. And quite a few others, of course. Just wanted to get that in there.

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