Do you want the bad news, or the worse news first? There's no good way to do this, so why don't we just hear both at the same time: game hardware got much more expensive in 2025, and we should prepare for similar price hikes in 2026.
Circana industry analyst Mat Piscatella tells GamesRadar+, "I'm not afraid to say I'm extremely concerned about" rising hardware prices in 2026. Already, the standard Xbox Series X has gone up to $600 from $500, each version of the PS5 went up $50, and the original Nintendo Switch – released in 2017, let's remember – became $340 instead of $300.
"If there's one way that cloud will ever get off the ground in a meaningful way, it would be to make dedicated gaming devices completely unavailable and/or unaffordable," Piscatella adds grimly. "Going to be one rocky ride in 2026."
Dr. Serkan Toto, CEO of Japanese game industry consultancy Kantan Games is more direct, telling GamesRadar+, "One thing is certain: Hardware prices will not fall, even for the now slowly aging PS5 or Xbox Series consoles."
"I would like to stress that Nintendo in 2025 RAISED the price of the 8 year old Switch 1 from US$300 to US$340 in the US," Toto says. Jeez, don't remind me. "Would anybody be shocked if Nintendo followed that up with a price increase for Switch 2 next year?"
If it does, there will be unavoidable consequences for the growth-obsessed industry. "November spending on physical video games in the US was the lowest for a November month in tracked history," Piscatella says. "I expect next year to break that record. 2027 (assuming new generation consoles appear that year) will likely see further reductions." Happy new year to you, too.
Game hardware is now $200 more expensive on average than it was in 2019, according to industry analyst: "It could potentially be catastrophic."
