AI strikes again as Sony Japan announces it's suspending memory card production

The knock-on effects from the RAM Storage Crisis and escalating SSD prices are being felt hard by Sony this month. Sony Japan has announced on its official website that "due to the global shortage of semiconductors (memory) and other factors "it is making the decision to temporarily suspend orders of its CFexpress memory cards and SD memory cards.

As of March 2026, any orders from "authorized dealers and from customers" haven't been accepted from any Sony stores. According to the original post, this affects CFexpress Type A and Type B memory cards, and Sony SDXC/SDHC memory cards, which isn't the best news if you depend on Sony cards to store and run games on your older Nintendo Switch handheld and other devices.

If you want to know the exact card types that have been affected, Sony Japan has thankfully included two lists with its announcement, which reveal that the cards are all part of the same "Tough" line. These cards are typically more aimed towards photographers and videographers, namely as they're designed to cope with copious amounts of data, like the shooting of many photos on a DSLR camera.

Yet, while this is not currently affecting the best Nintendo Switch 2 microSD Express cards, it's still not a pretty sight to behold. If Sony is feeling the heat from the dwindling supply of DRAM and NAND storage for consumer products, what's to say brands like SanDisk and Samsung aren't feeling it too?

From a quick sweep of US retailers like Amazon, however, it's not all doom and gloom. Plenty of the affected cards are still in stock, like the Sony TOUGH-M series SDXC UHS-II (SF-M256T) card for $127.89 at Amazon, and orders for these cards could be reinstated in the future. In the same announcement, Sony states that "regarding the resumption of order acceptance," it will "monitor the supply situation" and will make a separate announcement when things change.

Unlike storage brands like Crucial, which have ceased selling its SSDs to consumers entirely, this is just a suspension after all. Hope just feels hard to come by when this is the second announcement from Sony that shows that the knock-on effects of the RAM-pocalypse have no signs of slowing down.

Just days before, Isabelle Tomatis, Vice President of Global Marketing at Sony Interactive Entertainment, announced on the official PlayStation Blog that the familiar "pressures in the global economic landscape" are resulting in a price increase across the brand's PS5 consoles and the PlayStation Portal. So whether you play the best PS5 games, or just partake in some photography, no hobby is safe.

While storage brands like SanDisk, Samsung, and Lexar haven't made any similar announcements, and stock of Switch and Switch 2-compatible cards are still widely available, I'll be sure to let you know if and when that changes. For now, I recommend snatching up any Sony Tough Series SD cards you had your eyes on while stock lasts.

• View all Sony SD cards at Amazon
• View all microSD Express cards at Amazon

If it's storage you're after, check out our guides to the best SSDs for PS5, the best PS5 external hard drives, and the best Xbox Series X hard drives.