If by some miracle you’ve been living in a soundproof dome on the moon for the past six months, you may not have noticed that gaming equipment has become prohibitively expensive and the hobby has become a miserable business for all involved. First we called RAM crisisbut the sad reality is that now poured into the warehouse and there are specialists predicting a bleak future.
It breaks PC gaming Valve’s long-awaited Steam Machine has gone on sale for over $1,000 for its cheapest model – with a higher price than most expected its creators explain it “reflects the state of the world”. When anyone planning to buy older-generation memory sees DDR4, consumers are sidetracked every step of the way. and even DDR3 prices are going up.
It’s easy to point fingers, given Microsoft’s undeniable if somewhat withdrawn, the obsession with AIso be it Copilot on Windows or implementation Across the Azure cloud stack. To be honest, it’s not without irony XBOX CEO Asha Sharma said that “Unable to buy game” before announcing the brand price increase on its consoles.
enough that Xbox’s Matthew Ball agrees that “Crisis is the right term”and the effect of expensive RAM will definitely be felt leading the next-generation Project Helix console – which supposedly it behaves more like a gaming computer — and who knows what its retail price might look like (more than a thousand dollars?) In fact, hardware pivots are already appearing in Microsoft’s PC hardware. Surface Laptop returns with 8GB of RAM to keep costs down.
What a disaster…I dread to think how expensive the Helix could be.
Papictu, a member of the Windows Central community
I know, I’m hardly a beacon of good news or hopeful visions for the future, but this AI the bubble will probably burst at some point and it’s good to think about what options we actually have. The usual mid-summer onslaught of sales events brought some relief with retail discounts and Prebuilt gaming PCs retain their value throughout. Still, potential buyers will have to brace themselves for an inevitable sting if they plan to snag one later this year (or into 2027).
If you’re interested in console gaming, you’re looking at the bare minimum $749.99 for digital Xbox Series X – this is it without a disk drive – or $499.99 for similar diskless (and less powerful). Xbox Series S. On the Sony side, we now have the PS5 Pro $899.99or at least $599.99 digital base for PS5. This, by the way, without any games and Grand Theft Auto VI was recently confirmed 99 dollars price tag for the Ultimate Edition code with all in-game content.
In total, players are expected to spend close to $1,000 just to get started. The whole situation is absurd and unfair, but it puts a price on handheld devices like this MSI $1,799 Claw 8 EX AI+ perspective; How much does this kind of ultra-enthusiast machine cost now?. Everything reminds me of a bygone era Cryptocurrency production driving up GPU pricesbut this time it’s bigger and more offensive.
Well, what should you do? You can, or can, pinch your way through discounted and second-hand gear introduce the future of cloud-streamed subscription-based gaming. If you don’t already own an Xbox, I’d suggest picking one up before the August price hike happens, but there’s only so much you can do. Stay strong, players.
Join us Reddit at r/WindowsCentral to share your thoughts and discuss our latest news, reviews and more.
