If you’ve been following the news, British semiconductor and software design company Arm will go public as soon as next month. Considering the company’s long history intertwined with video games, things could get interesting.
Arm originally stood for Acorn RISC Machines and later Advanced RISC Machines, before dropping the acronym altogether. However, their RISC microchip designs have made their way into all manner of devices over the years.
From a gaming perspective, handhelds like the Game Boy Advance, Nintendo 3DS, PlayStation Vita and even the Nintendo Switch all use Arm designed microchips. Even the popular retro micro console releases like the NES Classic, SNES Classic and PlayStation Classic all have Arm designed microchips in their makeup.
So this IPO will have interesting ramifications for video games, not least with the rumors of a new Switch on the horizon. In that, if this IPO goes well, it will likely help Arm grow further as a company. Furthermore, as Softbank bought Arm back in 2016, so this IPO will also have a positive impact on the Japanese gaming and tech industry.
What this will mean for gaming as a whole is that one of the companies that is responsible for the fundamental technical foundations of a lot of gaming hardware will have a lot more capital to play with. Funding growth, developing and improving new products and services as a result.
Considering Arm has always been the solid and somewhat silent backbone of a lot of gaming hardware over the years, this injection of capital will no doubt have a large impact on gaming over the coming months and years.
As an aside, if you are at all curious about Arm’s history and the origins of Acorn Computers, you should watch the excellent film Micro Men from 2009 (shown below) and the follow up discussion from Christopher Curry, Steve Furber and Hermann Hauser about this legendary British tech company.
Follow me on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. I also manage Mecha Damashii and do toy reviews over at hobbylink.tv.
Read my Forbes blog here.
Read the full article here
