The next generation of home consoles is in constant fluctuation. Studio monopolies are caving in. Players are not on board with the all-digital future. One thing that is certain is that when Sony and Microsoft do pull the trigger, it will be monumentally expensive for players. With costs rising all over, consumer technology is among the fastest climbing expenses, with the AI boom hoovering up key computer components. According to one insider, the PlayStation 6’s memory alone will rake up more than $700 USD, pushing the full price tag over the $1,000 rim.
According to Video Games Chronicle, AMD insider and forum poster “KeplerL2” believes that RAM and flash storage on Sony’s next console will cost “over $680.” It’s a startling number, a figure that once upon a time accounted for the entire package, but not a surprising one. Anyone who has had to pluck a quick SSD can attest how rapidly hardware costs have risen in the last three years.
The prime mover in these mounting costs is the AI industry. These firms require monumental resources to dress a baby like a cop for TikTok videos. Before cement is even poured for data centers, companies are calling dibs on key suppliers like NVIDIA, meaning the costs you’re experiencing now is still a phantom to what’s to come. It’s forced many tech leaders, especially in the gaming space, to talk out of both sides of their mouth. Epic’s Tim Sweeney and Xbox’s Asha Sharma are laying the groundwork for gaming’s AI revolution five days of the week and admitting it’ll lock out swaths of players on the sixth.
Even before Sony’s post-disc hostilities and fly by night tariffs, the very nature of the console market has shifted considerably. Once upon a time, these companies were willing to bite a loss on manufacturing, knowing they would make up for it with game sales and licensing fees. For over a generation, trends have shifted. Now the average player spends more time with fewer games. Subsidizing that loss with traditional game sales is no longer a guarantee. It has prompted the likes of Sony to focus its attention towards ventures like cross-media development and aspirations to take the live service space for themselves.
Already the current generation of consoles, the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and Nintendo Switch 2, are the first to uniformly become more expensive over time instead of less. How much further these costs will hike, and who will be able to keep up, is still in the making.
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