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[LectureMaster]

This RAM Crisis Is Looking Like a Nightmare for the PS6

RAMpage

www.pushsquare.com

---

It's not been an easy generation for console manufacturers like PlayStation.

Sony has had to contend with the coronavirus pandemic and the impact that subsequently had on supply chains. Then it's had to deal with rising component costs and US tariffs. And now it's navigating a RAM crisis.

While word is the platform holder has stockpiled the parts it needs to keep PS5 affordable for the foreseeable future, it looks like the crisis will hit everyone eventually.

Micron announced overnight that it will cease supplying RAM and memory to consumers by the end of February 2026, as it re-routes its products to supplying AI-driven data centres instead.

We already know prices have been soaring due to OpenAI's deals with other manufacturers like Samsung, which will see it buy 40% of the world's global supply of RAM. And now less options will be made available to consumers.

Here's the statement Micron's EVP and Chief Business Officer Sumit Sadana released announcing its decision:

"The AI-driven growth in the data centre has led to a surge in demand for memory and storage. Micron has made the difficult decision to exit the Crucial consumer business in order to improve supply and support for our larger, strategic customers in faster-growing segments. Thanks to a passionate community of consumers, the Crucial brand has become synonymous with technical leadership, quality and reliability of leading-edge memory and storage products. We would like to thank our millions of customers, hundreds of partners and all of the Micron team members who have supported the Crucial journey for the last 29 years."

While this is likely to hit the consumer PC market hardest, Sony is absolutely going to be impacted by rising costs.

As a major manufacturer, it obviously has an advantage over regular consumers as it'll be buying parts in bulk and will benefit from economies of scale. But it's just another potential impending headache for the PS6.

If you look at price trends for the past 18 months, you can see RAM prices have jumped by an almost unthinkable amount over the past eight or so weeks.

And announcements like this from Micron aren't going to help.

 

[LectureMaster]

 

[PauloRoberto]

Yeah, because absolutely no other device uses or will use RAM memory, only PS6 will... i fu**ing hate these flame war clickbait titles...

 

[onQ123]

Sony has ReRAM but I'm not sure if they're prepared to use it in high volumes

 

[Truthtellers]

Lol Sammy Barker.

 

[Tiago Rodrigues]

Literally they know nothing about...nothing.
We don't know what kind of deals Sony already has in place for the PS6 with all these brands for starters.
PS6 isn't even a real thing lol. But whatever for the clicks.

That article looks like a random post from Gaf...

 

[HerjansEagleFeeder]

You're beginning to feel like a digital prepper of sorts these days. One "crisis" after another. Might as well go full-time tinfoil hat doomer and downgrade your resolution, install Linux, buy games only on GOG etc. so you'll be shielded against all the scummy bullshit the outside corpo world is trying to pull on you.

 

[Rosoboy19]

Micron announced overnight that it will cease supplying RAM and memory to consumers by the end of February 2026, as it re-routes its products to supplying AI-driven data centres instead.

All the big tech companies abandoning actual human customers for AI…right on schedule

 

[XERXES_89]

Woke culture is destroying our precious hobby, brothers and sisters

 

[Killer8]

 

[Bojji]

Yeah, because absolutely no other device uses or will use RAM memory, only PS6 will... i fu**ing hate these flame war clickbait titles...

Many people on this forum believe that somehow Sony is immune to rising RAM prices and low availability.

Literally they know nothing about...nothing.
We don't know what kind of deals Sony already has in place for the PS6 with all these brands for starters.
PS6 isn't even a real thing lol. But whatever for the clicks.

That article looks like a random post from Gaf...

They certainly don't have stocks of GDDR7 that will be used in PS6, rumors are that contracts with memory producers are very short so I doubt they have one for PS6 memory that will be needed in 2027 (if they have it may be altered).

 

[OuterLimits]

Yeah, because absolutely no other device uses or will use RAM memory, only PS6 will... i fu**ing hate these flame war clickbait titles...

Push Square is a site that focuses on Sony correct? So it makes sense they would be discussing how this could impact PS6.

 

[L*][*N*K]

 

[Bojji]

Switch 2 use RAM as well...

 

[L*][*N*K]

Switch 2 use RAM as well...

I already have a Switch 2

 

[Felessan]

It's reminds me of Covid...
Why do most people can only do straight line linear extrapolation? When in reality most processes are oscillating and sine is a better extrapolation

The bigger shortages now, the higher price hike is, the faster AI companies get fucked and thing return to normal. Honestly don't think this frenzy will last for 2 whole years.

 

[DenchDeckard]

Insane to think we could have £700 PS5s and Switch 2s maybe even more if they havent purchased stock.

 

[yogaflame]

 

[willothedog]

Insane to think we could have £700 PS5s and Switch 2s maybe even more if they havent purchased stock.

Here's a crazy idea: keep the same price and subsidise the hardware fully knowing they will still make money off the backend from locking customers into their ecosystem

 

[Panajev2001a]

This RAM Crisis Is Looking Like a Nightmare for the PS6

RAMpage

www.pushsquare.com

---

It's not been an easy generation for console manufacturers like PlayStation.

Sony has had to contend with the coronavirus pandemic and the impact that subsequently had on supply chains. Then it's had to deal with rising component costs and US tariffs. And now it's navigating a RAM crisis.

While word is the platform holder has stockpiled the parts it needs to keep PS5 affordable for the foreseeable future, it looks like the crisis will hit everyone eventually.

Micron announced overnight that it will cease supplying RAM and memory to consumers by the end of February 2026, as it re-routes its products to supplying AI-driven data centres instead.

We already know prices have been soaring due to OpenAI's deals with other manufacturers like Samsung, which will see it buy 40% of the world's global supply of RAM. And now less options will be made available to consumers.

Here's the statement Micron's EVP and Chief Business Officer Sumit Sadana released announcing its decision:


While this is likely to hit the consumer PC market hardest, Sony is absolutely going to be impacted by rising costs.

As a major manufacturer, it obviously has an advantage over regular consumers as it'll be buying parts in bulk and will benefit from economies of scale. But it's just another potential impending headache for the PS6.

If you look at price trends for the past 18 months, you can see RAM prices have jumped by an almost unthinkable amount over the past eight or so weeks.

And announcements like this from Micron aren't going to help.

There is also a golden opportunity to sell a PS6 that could be much much much cheaper than any PC people can build themselves as Sony buys in bulk. Although I would welcome a one year delay and rejigging the memory hierarchy around a big big chunk of eDRAM .

 

[DenchDeckard]

Here's a crazy idea: keep the same price and subsidise the hardware fully knowing they will still make money off the backend from locking customers into their ecosystem

And just wipe out all the record breaking profit? how do they explain that to the shareholders?

 

[Euler007]

They should stretch the generation regardless. PS4 was long in the tooth when the PS5 launched but even the base PS5 is good for another three years. Focus on the games.

 

[hinch7]

They (Sony) might have to push back initial launch plans if there aren't enough RAM capacity to go around. I'm VERY interested at how Valve will price the Steam Machine now. Considering at how shitty DDR5 situation is right now.

People decrying about PC prices prior to the RAM gate will be eating a lot of crow over the upcoming years. Its going to be brutal. This will extend this generation and push back next generation plans quite a bit I would guess.

 

[winjer]

Console fanboys when they realize that their console also uses dram chips.

 

[Anchovie123]

PS6 is shipping late 2027? Problem will likely be resolved or reduced by then. Also the PS6 will use GDDR7, its only speculation that the supply chains will re-allocate to DDR5.

I would be more concerned about the Switch 2 and the Steam Machine witch literally use DDR5.

 

[Lambogenie]

Microwave prices about to go insane.
Calculator prices about to go insane.

What isn't going up, actually?

 

[twilo99]

Look on the bright side

 

[SScorpio]

Insane to think we could have £700 PS5s and Switch 2s maybe even more if they havent purchased stock.

You're assuming there will be any available to purchase at all. Everyone is going to get a replay of when the crypto miners hit GPUs, only this will affect all electronics.

 

[LiquidMetal14]

Lazy low hanging fruit journalism

 

[willothedog]

And just wipe out all the record breaking profit? how do they explain that to the shareholders?

raise the prices on accessories, subscriptions, store percentage etc to compensate.

 

[jm89]

Many people on this forum believe that somehow Sony is immune to rising RAM prices and low availability.

"Many" people is a stretch.

Sony right now are immune to it as they bought up enough stock to last them a few months. Who is even arguing Sony won't be effected after that?

 

[Cakeboxer]

Wait a minute, after checking the other thread I thought this was a PC-only problem. Are you telling me that consoles also have RAM?

 

[Witchilich]

MLiD said the RAM issue will last until the end of next year.

 

[CentralScrutinizer]

Hoping my 12gb GPU stays relevant for the entirety of next gen....

 

[Horseganador]

Why focus the problem on just one product? This affects all hardware manufacturers.

 

[Punished Miku]

Why focus the problem on just one product? This affects all hardware manufacturers.

Because it's a PS website

 

[willothedog]

MLiD said the RAM issue will last until the end of next year.

must be true then...

 

[RagnarokIV]

Mong website

 

[Zathalus]

Hopefully prices have come down somewhat when PS6 production will start, which will likely be mid 2027.

If not, I can see it getting delayed. I don't think Sony will go with 20GB of RAM instead of 30GB. Well, I hope not at least, cause that would suck.

 

[adamsapple]

 

[SScorpio]

MLiD said the RAM issue will last until the end of next year.

SK Hynix said they wouldn't meet demand until second after 2027. And that was before the Micron Crucial news. I could see that bumped out to mid 2028 if not later.

 

[Mownoc]

PS6 is still 2 years, or more, away from launching. Who knows what the situation will be like by mid 2027. Switch 2 is probably the device in the worst place, as it's a new device that hasn't built up a huge install base yet and they'll be expecting to manufacture a lot of Switch 2's in 2026/2027.

 

[killatopak]

Bust out Limewire and download me some good ol' ram.

MS will somehow bring back the power of the cloud to offload ram needs on their servers somehow.

 

[Tiago Rodrigues]

PS6 is still 2 years, or more, away from launching. Who knows what the situation will be like by mid 2027. Switch 2 is probably the device in the worst place, as it's a new device that hasn't built up a huge install base yet and they'll be expecting to manufacture a lot of Switch 2's in 2026/2027.

Nintendo's situation is starting to look like Playstation's in 2021/2022 even if for different reasons.

 

[Fbh]

Can't wait to decide between a $900 Ps6 or a $1100 8gb RTX6060ti.
All to play games on Unreal Engine 6 in glorious upscaled 720p and 45fps.

 

[adamsapple]

"Many" people is a stretch.

Sony right now are immune to it as they bought up enough stock to last them a few months. Who is even arguing Sony won't be effected after that?

 

[Giallo Corsa]

SK Hynix said they wouldn't meet demand until second after 2027. And that was before the Micron Crucial news. I could see that bumped out to mid 2028 if not later.

Well, shit, I smell another COVID situation for next gen consoles launch (for different reasons obviously).
I mean, next-box is supposed to come out 2026-2027 and the PS6 in 2027, their R&D is surely done by now (?) but what about the actual manufacturing? wouldn't this impact that significantly ?

Honest question btw

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

MLiD suggested that the PS6 should have 40 GB of RAM for AI and ray tracing.

 

[jm89]

Zacfoldor mentioned it will effect consoles in that quote

His right about it having an even bigger effect to the consumer market for pc parts. It is what it is.

 

[Magic Carpet]

Can older slower ram be used but at a higher bits bus?

Need to make big boards with lots of traces.