Xbox And PlayStation’s Next Consoles Could Be Delayed Due To RAM Price Increases
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Joshua Robertson is a News Editor for TheGamer. When not writing about breaking news, community stories, or covering industry events, you can find him begging FromSoftware for a Bloodborne remaster.
It’s potentially about to get a lot more expensive to be a game in the near future (yes, even more expensive than it already is), and that’s due to the price of hardware right now. Thanks primarily to the rise of AI, the availability of things like RAM and GPUs is set to drop even further as we head into 2026, which in turn will lead to a rise in the prices of hardware overall. For example, it’s estimated that both PlayStation and Xbox will likely raise the prices of their respective hardware at some point next year.
According to a new report from Insider Gaming, the lack of decently priced RAM is causing a lot of concern within the industry, specifically when it comes to manufacturing hardware. You have both Xbox and PlayStation making their next generation consoles, while Steam will also be getting in on the act soon with its own Steam Machine. That’s a lot of RAM that’s going to be needed, and there are reportedly worries across the board about being able to actually set competitive price points at the rate things are going.
RAM Prices Increases Could See Next-Gen Consoles Delayed
Despite what the rampant price increases recently may suggest, PlayStation and Xbox can’t simply charge what they like for their consoles. Higher prices mean fewer units are sold, which means fewer games are sold, which means fewer profits. With RAM continuously increasing in price, the prices of PlayStation and Xbox’s next-gen consoles could be pretty eye-watering.
It’s apparently so bad that Insider Gaming has heard about console manufacturers potentially delaying the release of their next-gen consoles to try and wait out the RAM shortages, hoping that manufacturers will have improved their processes to start churning it out faster, therefore dropping the price. It’s not confirmed that this is happening, but it sounds like a delay could be a possibility.
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For some, that probably doesn’t sound like a bad thing. We’re still seeing games launch for the PS4, and it doesn’t really feel like we’ve had any games from either PlayStation or Xbox that have pushed either the PS5 or Xbox Series X to their limits. There’s no real need for another generation of consoles for quite a while yet, so pushing the release of the PS6 and whatever Xbox has planned into 2028 or beyond doesn’t sound like a terrible idea. Either way, it sounds like consoles are set to get more expensive for quite some time yet.
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