By Zaheer Kachwala<\/p>\n
Dec 22 (Reuters) – Videogame console sales were already under pressure owing to tariff turmoil and weak consumer spending. Now a surge in the prices of memory chips is threatening to make the devices costlier in what could be \u200banother blow to the industry.<\/p>\n
Demand for dynamic random access memory – chips used in Sony’s PlayStation<\/a>, Microsoft<\/a>‘s Xbox<\/a> and the Nintendo \u200cSwitch 2 – has exceeded supply as the tech sector races to build out artificial intelligence infrastructure.<\/p>\n That has pushed memory makers to favor higher-margin data-center chips, tightening supply for consumer devices. \u200cMicron, for instance, is pulling the plug on its long-running Crucial brand, a staple for PC builders and hobbyists.<\/p>\n Memory chips are central to gaming systems, enabling quick load times, smooth frame rates and overall performance – features that matter most in big-budget and proven titles.<\/p>\n CONSOLE MAKERS FORCED TO RAISE PRICES<\/p>\n With rising costs related to chips, console makers and other gaming-hardware producers may be forced to raise prices as the devices are usually sold on razor-thin margins, \u2060analysts and industry experts said.<\/p>\n But such a move \u200ccould sharply dent demand after tariff-driven hikes earlier this year, they warned. Sony, Xbox, and Nintendo did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n CyberPowerPC, a maker of high-end gaming PCs, announced price increases late last month. Others such \u200das Dell Technologies and China’s Lenovo also plan to raise prices, according to reports.<\/p>\n “Since memory makes up about a fifth of a PC’s total component costs, this hits manufacturers hard,” said Joost van Dreunen, games professor at NYU’s Stern School of Business.<\/p>\n He said sticker prices for consoles could rise another 10% to 15% \u200bover the next year or two, while PC prices could climb as much as 30% as memory prices rise again in 2026.<\/p>\n ANOTHER PRICE \u200cJUMP, DELAYS LIKELY IN 2026<\/p>\n Counterpoint Research estimated in November that memory prices were likely to rise 30% in the last three months of 2025 and possibly 20% more early next year, on top of the 50% hikes so far this year.<\/p>\n Even though major console makers such as Sony typically lock in some inventory years ahead and can extend device life-cycles to blunt the impact, some industry watchers have downgraded their forecasts for the console market.<\/p>\n TrendForce expects growth of just 5.8% this year, down from a previous view of 9.7%, and sees a 4.4% decline in 2026 \u2060compared with an earlier forecast of a 3.5% drop.<\/p>\n Spending on gaming hardware fell 27% \u200blast month, while unit sales for the period were the weakest since 1995 as \u200bthe average price of a new gaming device hit a record for the month, according to industry tracker Circana.<\/p>\n Average selling prices for consoles have increased this year as tariffs on imports hike manufacturing costs, while a lack of \u200dsystem-selling games leaves aging hardware without a \u2060major catalyst for growth.<\/p>\n High-end consoles such as the Xbox Series X retail for around $650, while the PlayStation 5 Pro is priced around $750, according to company announcements.<\/p>\n Higher component costs could also complicate the roll-out of devices including the Steam Machine, a PC gaming platform \u2060from Counter-Strike creator Valve, which was expected to go on sale next year.<\/p>\n Valve did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n Companies will move cautiously if videogame spending pulls \u200cback more broadly, Emarketer analyst Jacob Bourne said. “So instead of risking poor sales, we might see console makers delay releases.”<\/p>\n (Reporting \u200cby Zaheer Kachwala in Bengaluru; Editing by Aditya Soni and Arun Koyyur)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Zaheer Kachwala Dec 22 (Reuters) – Videogame console sales were already under pressure owing to tariff turmoil…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":246211,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[261],"tags":[291,289,290,11902,128822,18,128821,19,17,18340,80702,128820,128819,82,128823],"class_list":{"0":"post-246210","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-consumer-spending","12":"tag-dynamic-random-access-memory","13":"tag-eire","14":"tag-gaming-device","15":"tag-ie","16":"tag-ireland","17":"tag-memory","18":"tag-memory-chips","19":"tag-memory-makers","20":"tag-memory-prices","21":"tag-technology","22":"tag-videogame-console"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115764465631425167","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246210"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246210\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}