Ever since the pandemic in 2020, it feels like we’ve been bouncing from one global crisis to another.
In the tech sphere specifically, we’ve seen semi-conductor shortages and tariffs impact products like gaming consoles.
Now, the AI boom is having a profound effect on the price of DRAM, with OpenAI said to be gobbling up 40% of the world’s supply to power its server farms.
We already know that Sony has stockpiled components so none of this should impact the price of the PS5 in the near future, but just to illustrate how wild things are getting, Tom’s Hardware reports that 64GB of DDR5 RAM currently costs around $599.
That, as the site points out, is $200 more than the PS5 Slim on Black Friday and just $50 less than the superpowered PS5 Pro.
What’s particularly crazy is that prices of DRAM have soared by almost 200% in just three months, so this is a very recent phenomenon that’s seemingly caught everyone but Sony by surprise.
Microsoft has allegedly already started to warn partners that it will be increasing the price of the Xbox Series X|S again, as it didn’t have the foresight to stockpile inventory in advance.
The real concern here is that prices remain high in 2026, because Sony’s quick thinking will only be able to protect the PS5 for so long.
Honestly, if you’ve been thinking about getting a new console, we’d recommend you take advantage of the current Black Friday deals. These systems are not going to get any more affordable than they are right now, unfortunately.
[source tomshardware.com]
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As the Editor of Push Square, Sammy has over 15 years of experience analysing the world of PlayStation, from PS3 through PS5 and everything in between. He’s an expert on PS Studios and industry matters, as well as sports games and simulators. He also enjoys RPGs when he has the time to dedicate to them, and is a bit of a gacha whale.