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[lh032]

sony always one steps ahead.

Steam console is done for.

 

[sephirot_buns]

gabe was busy searching for yachts, he should have been working his ass off in the RAM mines instead

 

[MisterXDTV]

But PCMR told me console-makers would be in the same spot as me trying to buy RAM sticks on Amazon

 

[owandeseis]

It isn't relevant to my post, because nobody said the RAM crisis is good for business/profits. So who was saying falling stock price is due to warriors and why are you laughing about that? I just said that the customer is affected by rising hardware prices less on consoles because installbase is important in the loss leader model and they can stabilise hardware cost more to try to ride out instability.

You just mentioned the early access thing now. I said other platforms already have this anyway. As for the PS+ hike, I don't doubt that either. Especially as subs always are hiked and they normally blame the rpi/cpi in April but again were PC subs like gamepass or EA play immune from hikes? they weren't, and they're all likely to see more too.

You don't have to recover it especially if it means projected software sales decline due to your installbase projections falling short. They can have lower margin quarters and carry on but they're saying they won't have those because software revenue is likely to increase, especially with big games like GTA6. They reduced the PS5 price in December to $399 while this RAM crisis was happening keep that in mind as to how important installbase is for them. They may hike hardware prices too but I'm just saying consoles are affected less by it.


The tech companies certainly haven't done anybody any favours by buying up all the RAM but it's not doom and gloom of massive price hikes happening on consoles, at least not yet, and hopefully not in the future.

By rising hardware prices that's for sure, unlike on PC, console manufacturers have more ways to recover to offset the losses than just raising HW prices.

They defintely have to recover it, or at least try, the easiest way is what they are hinting, price hiking on actual users, as that won't affect their install base projections at all.

On consoles, actual ones specially it was never going to be as massive, first because they are cheaper and second because they are old, just like you can't compare the price hike from a 5080 with 32gb RAM DDR5 at 6000mhz to a PC with a 5060 8gb VRAM and a Ryzen 5500 with 16gb DDR4 RAM, and that's even too much with the new gen GPU, that's why Nvidia is going back to manufacturing 3060's that we should see again in the market soon enough.

But in 2026, if you want affordable HW, having to buy a series 3000 GPU with 5000 ryzen as if it was 2020 will suck, just like buying a PS5 at the same price as 2020 and having to pay way more to play online.

And the future doesn't look better unless big techs stop, i can't imagine a series 6000 or PS6 happening anytime soon, or at any decent price sadly.

 

[ReyBrujo]

And just yesterday someone was saying that Sony probably had bought supply for 3 years lol Modules for one year seems fine, it depends on how many units they expect to sell, 25 or 30m consoles?

 

[vkbest]

Sony CFO says they are already in a position to secure the minimum quantity of memory to manage until the end of this year's holiday sales period......

.....However, we have decided that we have no choice but the do another price increase of $100, £129 and €179 to combat rising inflation.

They know they are in the limit already, so I'm betting they will increase PSN+, and peripherals

 

[Fafalada]

Sony CFO Lin Tao says they are already in a position to secure the minimum quantity of memory to manage until the end of this year's holiday sales period!

Is that before or after the price increase to 999$ for the Digital edition?

 

[poppabk]

Both Sony and Nintendo have confirmed that it will not affect them for now despite some people trying really hard to project their current platform woes elsewhere too.

When did Sony confirm this?

 

[Felessan]

Any source on Sony losing money with the PS5?

The very financial report
Stated negative impact on GSN OI is increase in hardware losses

 

[Bojji]

Phones use LPDDR5, which has the same generational price increase as DDR5 and GDDR7.
The PS5 and the Pro, RDNA4, RTX5050, etc, use GDDR6 which has not seen the same price increases. So these products will not see the same constrains and price increases.

True, but when even ancient DDR4 sees massive increases - it looks like all kinds of memory are getting much more expensive.

TVs and Smartphones are a completely different story because TVs are sold to make a profit with the hardware itself. A console doesn't need to. In fact consoles have been sold at a lost for most of their existance.

It all depends on how much loss they are willing to accept per unit...

 

[Three]

They defintely have to recover it, or at least try, the easiest way is what they are hinting, price hiking on actual users, as that won't affect their install base projections at all.

Or just like the PS3 gen they suffer temporary hardware profit losses (even bigger ones back then while making no profit) to maintain installbase while not looking into doom and glooming gaming software prices. There is that alternative. They're doing well with good profit from software now too vs PS3 gen when they were taking huge losses on hardware but knew they couldn't increase hardware price.

But in 2026, if you want affordable HW, having to buy a series 3000 GPU with 5000 ryzen as if it was 2020 will suck, just like buying a PS5 at the same price as 2020 and having to pay way more to play online.

And the future doesn't look better unless big techs stop, i can't imagine a series 6000 or PS6 happening anytime soon, or at any decent price sadly.

I'd love for big tech to stop but we know that's not happening.

When did Sony confirm this?

They just said they have secured memory until the end of this holiday season. Their current position doesn't include any plan to increase hardware price or at least to minimise it. Otherwise they would have to state that to the investors when asked how they are going to deal with it. They would have said to increase hw prices.

 

[poppabk]

They just said they have secured memory until the end of this holiday season. Their current position doesn't include any plan to increase hardware price or at least to minimise it. Otherwise they would have to state that to the investors when asked how they are going to deal with it. They would have said to increase hw prices.

They have said that they are in a position to secure the minimum to get through the next financial year, with nothing on the cost of securing this other than they had plans to offset this by increasing monetization of the existing base. Maybe some of it is translation,
but seriously reread what was said but imagine Phil Spencer was saying it.

 

[Panajev2001a]

They have said that they are in a position to secure the minimum to get through the next financial year, with nothing on the cost of securing this other than they had plans to offset this by increasing monetization of the existing base. Maybe some of it is translation,
but seriously reread what was said but imagine Phil Spencer was saying it.

Well Spencer has a history of lying … .

This could mean that they may increase price at some point or limit production / shipments to make things last well into the holidays.

Still, they will be increasing price of some things like services. They have cost reduced the HW a lot over time and I expect them to do more of it.

 

[Three]

They have said that they are in a position to secure the minimum to get through the next financial year, with nothing on the cost of securing this other than they had plans to offset this by increasing monetization of the existing base. Maybe some of it is translation,
but seriously reread what was said but imagine Phil Spencer was saying it.

They said:

"As for securing a supply of memory, we are already in a position to secure the minimum quantity necessary to manage the year-end selling season of next fiscal year. Going forward, we intend to further negotiate with various suppliers to secure enough supply to meet the demand of our customers. Given the stage of our console cycle, our hardware sales strategy can be adjusted flexibly, and we intend to minimize the impact of the increased memory cost on this segment going forward by prioritizing monetization of the install base to date and striving to further expand our software and network service revenue"

As in they have already secured the minimum for the year and are negotiating for more and their plan isn't to minimise this by increasing hardware revenue but to increase software and services revenue. It doesn't rule out anything but it points to them aiming for minimal impact on hardware prices. Yes or no?

 

[adamsapple]

You would think there would be a certain company in the best position to mitigate the situation given their very close ties with the company who are directly responsible for causing this shortage/crisis. But alas...

Agreed. Valve really did mess up big time, Steam Machine should have been out by now otherwise.

 

[SportsFan581]

Both Sony and Nintendo have confirmed that it will not affect them for now despite some people trying really hard to project their current platform woes elsewhere too.

I assume that MS's low console sales have nothing to do with procuring hardware. They've been predicting 30% - 40% downward trends every quarter for a while now. They are just winding down the series consoles gracefully, IMO.

 

[Three]

I assume that MS's low console sales have nothing to do with procuring hardware. They've been predicting 30% - 40% downward trends every quarter for a while now. They are just winding down the series consoles gracefully, IMO.

I wasn't talking about xbox there but they already have ridiculous hardware prices. Especially for the increased NAND options.

 

[Inanilmaz]

And just yesterday someone was saying that Sony probably had bought supply for 3 years lol Modules for one year seems fine, it depends on how many units they expect to sell, 25 or 30m consoles?

Hopefully at least 32m. So they break the full year ds record. But i know nothing about manufacturing and if something like this is possible.

 

[Zacfoldor]

Also don't forget they will likely delay the next device launch which will buy us time too.

This is also the reason that consoles can't conceivably be affected nearly as much as the consumer PC parts market for ram which of course has already for a while seen giant price increases. Console gents are already way ahead in this ram deal and it will only get more lopsided on who it mainly effects which is the PC market. Early on there was a ton of pushback saying "your thing will go up in price too" which was a coping mechanism obviously. This ram increase has already hit and affected the PC parts market everywhere and has not yet impacted consoles that I can tell.

So also a PSA, console prices may go up. Probably not nearly as much as off the shelf ram prices have but they may go up. That makes these the salad days for consoles. Get them now for cheap so you don't have to pay more when the price goes up. Plan your work and work your plan. Two is one and one is none. The quality will be remembered long after the price is forgotten.

 

[Calverz]

 

[Guardian Monkey]

Says they will continue to negotiate with suppliers for memory to meet demand and will minimize the impact of rising memory costs in 2 ways:

1. Prioritizing monetization of the current install base

2. Further expanding their software and network services revenue

Sounds like software and services price to increases on the Sony platform…

 

[Esppiral]

Seems like Sony has managed a way to somehow counteract any possible price increase until the end of this year, or at least minimize that. This is great news and if they somehow pull that off...whoever is in charge with this stuff at Sony deserves a raise.
If others somehow raise their hardware prices and Sony manages to keep their prices...that, plus Wolverine in September and GTAVI in November...that would be quite the feat.

Imagine a GTAVI + PS5 for 350 bucks.

They have increased, kept the same price since release they already covered any eventual memory price spike ....

 

[nial]

But I always heard that hardware is profitable (since 2021 or 2022). So what is the truth?

K KeplerL2 once explained that the console did have a brief period of being profitable (probably when that one Sony rep made that statement that you're thinking of back in 2021) before component prices went up and it started to lose money again.
This is no secret, really, Sony has mentioned to investors the negative impact of increasing hardware losses a couple of times already.

 

[crackajack]

Got to give Sony management a credit. They are prepared and careful planning.

As though this planning was done as an inexplicable clever foresight of prices of components rising.
They just ordered last year their planned demand for this year. Maybe with some clauses next year too, but those clauses might also factor in price changes with some months of delay. Their supplier is probably steaming right now and will jack up prices a lot with the next contract. Probably would have switched some production capacity to other more profitable RAM if not bound by penalty payments agreed in the Sony contract if not delivering on time the agreed amount.

Would be weird if Valve would not have also cheaper contracts from last year for the intial million or so of units, but beyond that they are fucked. Which is probably already a lot less than Sony fixed, with a smaller discount already cause that is a smaller ordered number. Valve might be fine selling their first units a couple of months at a reasonable low price too, but after that they don't want to subsidize, or at least did not plan on doing so.

 

[jm89]

But I always heard that hardware is profitable (since 2021 or 2022). So what is the truth?

I think at some point in 2021 it was profitable, sony mentioned this. But then component prices went up which probably put them in the red again.

I do remember in one of their fy reports in 2024 they were saying they saw a "decrease in hardware losses due to lower unit sales". Which would imply they were still taking losses on ps5s.

 

[Boss Mog]

I would still buy a PS5 Pro now if you don't already have one. PS6 is delayed so might as well have the best PS5 possible for the next couple of years. The PS5 Pro is a great deal these days (when compared to other consoles or the steam machine) one that is sure to not last. If they don't increase the price they will at the very least drop the SSD to 1TB, so get it now.

 

[Puscifer]

They cannot increase the PS5 price any further without tanking the sales. The console is too expensive as is.

Any source on Sony losing money with the PS5?

They said it themselves in their latest report. PS5 isn't maintaining a profit per console and it goes in and out of profitability.

 

[poppabk]

They said:

"As for securing a supply of memory, we are already in a position to secure the minimum quantity necessary to manage the year-end selling season of next fiscal year. Going forward, we intend to further negotiate with various suppliers to secure enough supply to meet the demand of our customers. Given the stage of our console cycle, our hardware sales strategy can be adjusted flexibly, and we intend to minimize the impact of the increased memory cost on this segment going forward by prioritizing monetization of the install base to date and striving to further expand our software and network service revenue"

As in they have already secured the minimum for the year and are negotiating for more and their plan isn't to minimise this by increasing hardware revenue but to increase software and services revenue. It doesn't rule out anything but it points to them aiming for minimal impact on hardware prices. Yes or no?

Again - they don't say they have secured the minimum they need but they are in a 'position' to and nothing says the terms are favorable.
Yes they lay out their plans to milk their existing userbase to offset some of this - but that is bad news and an admission that they are being hit by the price increases.

 

[Faltherion]

But are they in a position to secure the needed memory for PS6's launch? That's the real question and I am gonna assume a big hard no.

 

[Three]

Again - they don't say they have secured the minimum they need but they are in a 'position' to and nothing says the terms are favorable.

What does this mean? Can you please explain what you think "already in a position to secure" means. Their current "position to secure" is that they have a contract for the supply even if they currently do not have it in their possession. If they had issue with supply they wouldn't have sold PS5s at a $399 discount to boost hardware sales. They would have prolonged the sales of existing stock over the year.

Yes they lay out their plans to milk their existing userbase to offset some of this - but that is bad news and an admission that they are being hit by the price increases.

Ofcourse they will be hit by rising supply prices but this is different to hardware cost increasing for the customer. Doesn't even say that they're "milking" existing customers just that they are in the lifecycle of the console where they have a sizeable installbase (bigger than PS3s lifetime sales) who will generate greater revenue over this period to minimise any hardware losses from them eating that cost.

 

[MisterXDTV]

But are they in a position to secure the needed memory for PS6's launch? That's the real question and I am gonna assume a big hard no.

Who cares about PS6 launch when the biggest game ever is launching late 2026 on PS5 (Pro) semi-exclusive???

LOL

 

[poppabk]

What does this mean? Can you please explain what you think "already in a position to secure" means. Their current "position to secure" is that they have a contract for the supply even if they currently do not have it in their possession. If they had issue with supply they wouldn't have sold PS5s at a $399 discount to boost hardware sales. They would have prolonged the sales of existing stock over the year.


Ofcourse they will be hit by rising supply prices but this is different to hardware cost increasing for the customer. Doesn't even say that they're "milking" existing customers just that they are in the lifecycle of the console where they have a sizeable installbase (bigger than PS3s lifetime sales) who will generate greater revenue over this period to minimise any hardware losses from them eating that cost.

Before this declaration people were theorizing that Sony had already stockpiled enough RAM or had iron clad deals to get them through this year and maybe through the entire PS5 run without ever having to really deal with the current price increases. That would be 'secured'. 'In a position to secure' and 'further negotiate' suggests that they have recently negotiated deals to get them through this year, which means they will already be getting hit with these price increases this year.

I almost deleted milking and used a less inflammatory word, but honestly it's the perfect translation of this corporate speak - "Prioritizing monetization of the existing userbase"

 

[asdasdasdbb]

Before this declaration people were theorizing that Sony had already stockpiled enough RAM or had iron clad deals to get them through this year and maybe through the entire PS5 run without ever having to really deal with the current price increases.

I'd be worried that the memory manufacturers would simply stop making GDDR6 sooner than anticipated and turn over the fab space to GDDR7.

Could still happen.

 

[StereoVsn]

So Sony still has not secured DRAM for this year and is in the final negotiation stages.
Considering how the market is doing now, it's probably a bidding a war with other companies.

Even Apple got shafted by Samsung and had to renegotiate the prices. It's a bloodbath.

 

[Three]

Before this declaration people were theorizing that Sony had already stockpiled enough RAM or had iron clad deals to get them through this year and maybe through the entire PS5 run without ever having to really deal with the current price increases. That would be 'secured'. 'In a position to secure' and 'further negotiate' suggests that they have recently negotiated deals to get them through this year, which means they will already be getting hit with these price increases this year.

Stockpiled wouldn't have been true, you don't just ship a bunch of RAM to yourself and sit on it unless you're Altman but their supply position is secured for the year which if the 2027 rumours are true would not be that far from "end of gen" anyway. I don't remember people saying that but some may have said it. Certainly wasn't me though because I believe they will sell PS5 beyond this gen and into the next so they would be affected by rising supply prices if it continues regardless. I've only ever maintained the position that console hardware prices would be less affected than PC component prices due to the subsidy and their ability to eat that cost and so far that has been true.

I almost deleted milking and used a less inflammatory word, but honestly it's the perfect translation of this corporate speak - "Prioritizing monetization of the existing userbase"

Using the word monetization may make some feel funny inside but it's no different to what is happening now when people buy games/content. That is classed as "monetization". It's just them saying "our existing (late lifecycle) userbase is large enough and we make money off them, we won't prioritise the hardware segment so the lower hardware margin (or even a hardware price hike) won't affect us much". They're just saying they are not prioritising that segment and their aim is mostly on selling content to the existing 92M+ customers to show growth (which they can easily achieve if GTA6, Wolverine, etc release this year). If that is considered milking then it's always been milking.

I will remind you of this post when PS5 price increase happens and/or PS+ price increase.

That's the weakest copout ever. Those were likely to increase every year, at the very least with cpi, with or without the RAM crisis.

 

[RafterXL]

But PCMR told me console-makers would be in the same spot as me trying to buy RAM sticks on Amazon

Clearly you didn't read the headline. This the is the minimum they needed and it's only through this year. They are absolutely in the same spot as everyone else. People were claiming they had stock for years and now they have the least amount they absolutely need.

No one is safe from this memory problem.

 

[MisterXDTV]

Clearly you didn't read the headline. This the is the minimum they needed and it's only through this year. They are absolutely in the same spot as everyone else. People were claiming they had stock for years and now they have the least amount they absolutely need.

No one is safe from this memory problem.

Grasping at straws here…

Very funny

 

[hououinkyouma00]

But PCMR told me console-makers would be in the same spot as me trying to buy RAM sticks on Amazon

Consoles (Sony and Nintendo at least) aren't in the same boat right now, but it will unfortunately happen at some point.

Sony and presumably Nintendo were just smart and made sure that they allocated enough prior to the shit show.

 

[IntentionalPun]

Both Sony and Nintendo have confirmed that it will not affect them for now despite some people trying really hard to project their current platform woes elsewhere too.

She didn't say it isn't affecting them though. And she specifically indicated it might affect pricing.

https://thisweekinvideogames.com/news/sony-has-secured-enough-memory-to-meet-ps5-demands-for-holiday-2026/

When asked in the subsequent investor Q&A whether memory prices would impact console prices or the timeline for the next-generation PlayStation, Tao responded – through an English-language translator – "Due to cost increases, there will be some impact."

She simply said they secured the "minimum" amount they'd want to support this year's sales.. another way of saying that is they want to secure more. The whole thing is downplaying the impact but it's far from saying there is none.

Sony has done a great job at sourcing parts and got ahead of the shortage quite a bit but to act like they aren't impacted runs counter to what Lin Tao said.

 

[Faltherion]

Who cares about PS6 launch when the biggest game ever is launching late 2026 on PS5 (Pro) semi-exclusive???

LOL

You really are dumb aren't you? This is not a GTA6 thread you dingus and memory has nothing to do with GTA6. There are plenty of people who care about future hardware and how much it will cost and what the ram prices are going to be doing for future releases. Holy shit, go get a brain.

 

[Three]

She didn't say it isn't affecting them though. And she specifically indicated it might affect pricing.

https://thisweekinvideogames.com/news/sony-has-secured-enough-memory-to-meet-ps5-demands-for-holiday-2026/

She simply said they secured the "minimum" amount they'd want to support this year's sales.. another way of saying that is they want to secure more. The whole thing is downplaying the impact but it's far from saying there is none.

That is for next gen release though. Absolutely there is an impact on their bottom line even this gen but when asked what they plan to do about it the answer wasn't raise PS5 pricing. Even if they didn't rule it out explicitly they claimed their plans for this gen in an investors meeting. This isn't the same as Phil Spencer on a podcast like somebody was suggesting.

I absolutely see next gen having its price and lifecycle set for current RAM prices. Especially as new hardware has greater losses initially. They might even do it for PS5 but I see that as less likely.

Sony has done a great job at sourcing parts and got ahead of the shortage quite a bit but to act like they aren't impacted runs counter to what Lin Tao said.

Nobody said they aren't impacted. Only that they have options that PC component manufacturers, smarphones and TVs don't have because people keep bringing those up without understanding that the underlying business model is very different.

 

[MisterXDTV]

You really are dumb aren't you? This is not a GTA6 thread you dingus.

Is this a PS6 thread, genius?

A product that doesn't exist and never had a release date??

It's about PS5 and PS5 Pro, the CURRENT products

Now

 

[IntentionalPun]

That is for next gen release though.

How do you know? Link? That article lumps together 2 questions so it's hard to tell, but it certainly isn't clear from that quote if she means current gen pricing. I'm not seeing anywhere where she actually said otherwise in an actual quote.

Nobody said they aren't impacted. Only that they have options that PC component manufacturers, smarphones and TVs don't have because people keep bringing those up without understanding that the underlying business model is very different.

Well you just blanket said they aren't affected for now (a pretty exact synonym of "impacted" lol), and that just isn't true.

Even if they don't raise prices, that doesn't mean their costs increasing isn't affecting the price or possible discounts.

Not trying to take away anything from Sony impressively being able to provide discounts this holiday but that's largely because they've been one step ahead, but this interview is really evidence that it's catching up to them.

 

[Three]

How do you know? Link? That article lumps together 2 questions so it's hard to tell, but it certainly isn't clear from that quote if she means current gen pricing. I'm not seeing anywhere where she actually said otherwise in an actual quote.




Well you just blanket said they aren't affected for now (a pretty exact synonym of "impacted" lol), and that just isn't true.

I meant the pricing of their current product is not affected for now. Not that they are not financially impacted in any way.

 

[MisterXDTV]

Nobody said they aren't impacted. Only that they have options that PC component manufacturers, smarphones and TVs don't have because people keep bringing those up without understanding that the underlying business model is very different.

Too much common sense, buddy

 

[IntentionalPun]

I meant the pricing of their current product is not affected for now. Not that they are not financially impacted in any way.

Gotcha, but I still don't think we really know that for this year.

 

[Faltherion]

Is this a PS6 thread, genius?

A product that doesn't exist and never had a release date??

It's about PS5 and PS5 Pro, the CURRENT products

Now

Holy fuck. You cannot read thread titles and don't even understand the implications that Sony was making in regards to memory supply and you have 0 critical thinking skills. Go back to fucking reddit where you belong.

 

[RoboFu]

Can.... can I have some?

But yeah I hope this craziness only does last a year.

 

[Faltherion]

Can.... can I have some?

But yeah I hope this craziness only does last a year.

I highly doubt that. Even Nvidia is delaying 6000 RTX series to 2028 based on today's rumors. i am pretty positive this will be affecting future hardware releases as well.

 

[RafterXL]

Grasping at straws here…

Very funny

Yes, you are. Glad you realize that.

The "minimum" to "manage" is not the positive statement you think it is. It would not surprise me at all if, even if the console doesn't go up in price, all the peripherals and PSN+ gets a price hike sometime this year because of this fact.

"We intend to minimize the impact of the increased memory cost on this segment going forward by prioritizing monetization of the install base to date and striving to further expand our software and network service revenue."

Like I said, no one is safe from this.

Holy fuck. You cannot read thread titles and don't even understand the implications that Sony was making in regards to memory supply and you have 0 critical thinking skills. Go back to fucking reddit where you belong.

Yeah, you really have to spin this to make it a positive. At best, it's a brief exhale. You just don't shit out a new console, these things have multiple year road maps and targets to hit, and if you're barely keeping up with the parts for your 5 year old console, that doesn't bode well for new hardware.