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‘Chipflation’ is driving up the cost of video games and consoles, and prices show no signs of easing
A San Diego video game shop owner says chipflation — caused by AI data centers buying up computer chips — is pushing up prices for games, consoles and other electronics.
Video game prices have been climbing for years, and a San Diego shop owner says the trend shows no sign of slowing down — with an economic phenomenon known as “chipflation” largely to blame.
Treg Derry, owner of Luna Video Games in San Diego, said prices have been gradually rising but have accelerated sharply in recent years.
“Probably like 2010, games started kind of going up in price and stuff like that, but it was like a slow increment until like the last few years where it’s really just skyrocketed,” Derry said.
Luna Video Games specializes in console gaming across all eras.
“Our business is specifically console video games. so we deal with everything old school all the way up to the current generation console games,” Derry said.
Derry remembers when gaming systems cost just under $100, and game cartridges ran anywhere from $20 to $40, depending on the game and system. Over the years, he has watched those prices increase — driven by what experts are calling chipflation.
“When AI data centers buy up all the chips, then they’re gonna be really popular and hard to get, and so the price on them will go up,” Derry said.
That demand for chips is raising the cost of electronics across the board, including laptops, smartphones, smart TVs, video game systems and accessories. Smartphones have gone up 3 to 5 percent, and TVs have gone up 3.5 percent.
Games themselves have seen some of the steepest price increases.
“So all these games came out at $49.99. That was the MSRP back then, and that’s kind of what they came out at. And now we see them as high as $79.99 regularly and $99.99 for Grand Theft Auto. So I mean they’re definitely going up and up and up, and they don’t seem like they’re going to come down,” Derry said.
As the cost of newer systems continues to rise, many customers are turning their attention toward older systems. While they can only be found in specialty stores like Luna Video Games, they are often more affordable.
“We have many families coming because a lot of these games are much cheaper. We have games starting at like $5, and you can buy, you know, 4 different games for $20. And it’s more cost-effective than anything on the current generation consoles,” Derry said.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
