The Steam Machine costs upwards of $1000. PS5 and Xbox Series X|S consoles are hundreds of dollars more expensive now than they were at launch almost six years ago. Even the Nintendo Switch 2 is getting a price increase. But surely hardware costs won't keep ballooning, right? Surely, at some point, hopefully, the RAMpocalypse will come to an end and we can all go back to comfortably buying pieces of plastic-metal to play games on.
Well, that's not about to happen any time soon, according to electronics firm Lenovo. As reported on by ComputerBase, the company held a presentation at the ISC 2026 where executive director Martin Hiegl apparently told the audience that we're now in a new normal for DRAM and NAND prices.
The tech company explained that DRAM companies are upping their production capabilities to make more memory components, but those efforts probably aren't going to result in lower prices or, at least, prices that match their original levels for the foreseeable future. Hiegl then explained these inflated prices will become somewhat of a new normal until at least 2030. (Good spot, VGC).
In case you've had a look at hardware prices recently, that's, uh, not great news. Valve has blamed the Steam Machine's eye-watering price on high component costs that keep going up. Hot off increasing Xbox Series X|S prices once again, the console maker explained "storage and memory prices have increased by more than 2.5x and we expect another doubling by the fall of 2027." All signs point to consoles getting even more expensive and more people being priced out of the hobby.
PlayStation also raised PS5 prices earlier in the year, pointing to the vague "global economic landscape." The entire tech world is seemingly being plagued with RAM shortages as AI slop factories lay claim to these components in massive quantities.
