No console-flation: how the thirst for AI chips is sending games console prices soaring

AI datacentres, memory scarcity and factory capacity are costing consumers –and console makers

• that it would be charging at least £75 more for the Xbox Series S and X consoles from August. All three were first released back in 2020. The Switch 2 will also be more expensive globally from September.

The main culprit, of course, is AI, or more specifically the exploding demand for semiconductors and memory to power datacentres. Console manufacturers could once source these components cheaply, but now they’re in high demand and manufacturers can’t keep up, so deals are being struck. “Initially, the wave of price increases seen in gaming were driven by tariffs imposed by Donald Trump early last year,” says Andy Robinson, editor in chief of gaming news site VGC. “Then, in October, OpenAI announced a deal with Samsung and [Korean chip manufacturer] SK Hynix to acquire a huge portion of their DRAM output for datacentres, causing prices to increase by almost 200%. According to Xbox, those prices have since doubled again, and they’re not expected to come back down any time soon.”