In October 2025, OpenAI announced that it had signed a contract with Samsung and SK Hynix to further expand its “Stargate” data center, thereby securing nearly 40 percent of the inventory from their global memory supply chain. Since then, memory prices across various brands have skyrocketed, leading to price increases for gaming consoles, graphics cards, and other devices that rely on memory. It now appears that even the release dates for next-generation consoles may be affected.
According to information recently revealed by Tom Henderson, a reporter for Insider Gaming, on a podcast, executives from Sony and Microsoft have been holding discussions on this matter.
Even though price hikes for consoles like the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S have already left many gamers deeply concerned, if this report is accurate, gamers may have to wait even longer to see the PS6 and the next-generation Xbox consoles unveiled—potentially extending beyond the 2027 release window anticipated by many analysts. As for the final retail prices of these next-generation consoles, they will depend on the supply and demand dynamics of global memory and other component supply chains at that time.
It is worth noting that, since Microsoft has repeatedly stated publicly that the next-generation Xbox console will take a “high-end, high-spec” approach, even if memory prices stabilize during the console’s production period, its final retail price at launch will likely still be higher than that of the Xbox Series X.
Unfortunately, in addition to game consoles, the PC gaming market has also been severely impacted by the surge in memory prices. For example, ASUS recently announced that it would implement “strategic price adjustments” for some of its products, which means that the prices of products such as the ROG Xbox Ally and Ally X may change in the near future.
Not only that, but after Valve made a surprise announcement last year regarding its latest Steam Machine console, it has yet to officially disclose the exact price. Many gamers believe the company is still monitoring memory price trends and has not yet finalized the pricing details.
On the other hand, related rumors also suggest that Nvidia and AMD may continue to adjust the prices of their GPUs this year, particularly the currently mainstream RTX 50 series and Radeon RX 9000 series. with the price of the RTX 5090 having skyrocketed from $1,999 to $5,000 in one fell swoop. According to another recent report, Nvidia is also reportedly planning to restart production of the RTX 3060 graphics card to alleviate the issues caused by shortages and price hikes.
Source: KOCPC Chinese