The entire hardware industry is currently going through memory and storage shortages leading prices to skyrocket for many components which has now extended to even the consoles, resulting in price rises for both PS5s and the Xbox systems. Moreover, there’s a real uncertainty regarding when can we actually expect the prices to somewhat stabilize as it’s creating a kind of chokehold on the gaming industry, but to make matters even worse, we now have an alarming new report of memory prices possibly surging to yet another 50% before the end of this year which can lead to further price increases for many other components and even consoles.
According to the latest report from Jefferies Equity Research (via WCCFTech), memory prices are expected to rise by a whopping 40-50% in the third quarter of this year, and then by another 40% in the final fiscal quarter of 2027.
“A 40-45% Year-on-Year price hike is suggested, and the only recovery will be seen by 2028 when ASPs are expected to decline as new capacity, around 15 to 20 percent, comes into play,” the report states.
Also, the report states that the notion of the higher accessibility of the Chinese DRAM and NAND market is simply inaccurate as firstly, their prices are not getting any lower and secondly, most of their supplies are geared towards their own domestic demands which means markets outside of China won’t see any kind of help or recovery at all.
Recently, Lenovo has stated that the sharp increase in memory prices could last for at least the next five years and after that point, the raised prices may be perceived as a kind of “new normal”, painting a rather bleak image for the industry, in more ways than one.
“A ‘new normal’ could emerge from 2030 onwards, but with significantly higher prices than in 2024 and 2025. This already takes into account the large-scale launch of new manufacturing capacities starting in 2028,” the report states.
Which means, the elevated prices are here to stay for a possibly long while, impacting prices for other components and even consoles along the way.
