The memory and storage shortages and price increases that began affecting PC components late last year have quickly spread to all types of consumer tech – with some products disappearing, out of stock, or delayed, and others facing multiple rounds of price hikes.
Today’s bad news comes from Sony, which is raising the prices of PlayStation 5 consoles in the US, just eight months after the previous price increase. The drive-less digital version will rise from $500 to $600; The base PS5 with optical drive will rise from $550 to $650; And the PS5 Pro is going from $750 to $900. Starting in 2025, these consoles were priced at $450, $500, and $700, respectively.
Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo have all announced one or more price increases for one or more consoles throughout 2025, though these were driven more by the Trump administration’s tariffs on imported goods than a shortage of components. Game console price cuts had already become less common during the 2010s, making consoles like the PS5 more than 5 years old historically more expensive than older consoles at this point in their lifespan.
RAM and flash memory chips are in short supply primarily due to demand from AI data centers – memory manufacturers have shifted more production toward making the memory found in AI accelerators like Nvidia’s H200, leaving less space for the consumer market.
And barring a major change in demand from the AI industry, the situation is unlikely to improve any time soon. Manufacturers such as Kioxia have said their capacity is already sold out by the end of 2026. The complexity of chip manufacturing means that it takes months or years to add additional manufacturing capacity, and chip makers may be slow to do so because they do not want to end up with a surplus of memory that they cannot sell if market conditions change. In the short-to-medium term, this means that these high prices will probably persist for some time.
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