More from RAM price hikes: the latest on the global memory shortage
After nine straight quarters of growth, worldwide PC shipments dropped by 4.9 percent year-over-year, according to IDC. The research firm places the blame for the decline squarely on the memory chip shortage driven by the AI arms race.
Omida reports that memory costs can make up more than half the cost of low-end phones. That’s leading to a gradual retreat from the low-end market, as low-end products are “already becoming unprofitable and face a high risk of weakening demand as retail price continues to rise.”
Mikhail Klimentov interviewed Schreier about the channel, where Schreier sits in a room and explains things about video games. “A rule that I set for myself is that I will not do any video that takes me more than 30 minutes to do in any way,” says Schreier.
The oldest video on Schreier’s channel was posted on May 27th, and he already has more than 100,000 subscribers.
[ReaderGrev]
“PlayStation hardware unit sales fell to their lowest May total since May 2000, while Xbox hardware unit sales were the lowest ever recorded for a May month,” says Circana analyst Mat Piscatella.
The PlayStation figures are probably explained by the recently-hiked prices. With Xbox prices going up soon, sales might continue to be grim.
I’m not sure there’s an AI agent that can solve the fact that everything costs more and the planet is melting.
Cpt_Slim_Jim:
Imma go out on a limb to say that I have not had any productivity increases from AI be worth the financial burden it has placed upon me and my family.
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When is a gadget simultaneously good value and overpriced?
cantrip:
The Steam Machine is both fairly-priced and too expensive. It’s priced at cost, it’s just that not many people are going to be willing to pay it.
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SanDisk has a new 8TB PS5 drive, which will cost you a mere $2,959.99 (thanks, RAM crisis!). But that might not be enough for every game.
ItWasRamirez:
And the worst part is that Call of Duty still won’t fit
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That’s according to Silicon Motion (SMI) vice president Nelson Duann, who told Tom’s Hardware the memory shortage is pushing PC makers to buy third-party SSDs, while saying suppliers expect it will get worse in 2027:
The controllers we sell to module makers are now largely ending up in SSDs that are shipped to PC OEMs. The reason is that OEMs cannot obtain enough NAND directly from memory manufacturers, so they are increasingly sourcing SSDs from module makers instead.
During an interview with The Game Business at Summer Game Fest, Xbox strategy chief Matthew Ball admitted to “underestimating” the RAM crisis, saying that demand for Xbox consoles “exceeds supply.” It’s pushing Xbox to re-evaluate its plans for its next-gen Helix console:
“We are working very hard to rethink everything that we can about Helix, which is a console we are committed to shipping, and we are very cognisant of the ways in which we need to change as a company to make sure it is affordable, to make sure that it’s flexible.”
As Bloomberg reports, SK Hynix chairman Chey Tae-won says the company will do “whatever it requires” to expand chip production, but that will take years. So, unfortunately for anyone trying to buy a Steam Deck or build a gaming PC right now, the RAM shortage probably isn’t ending anytime soon.
