Thanks, AI. If you're not aware, we're in a bit of a global RAM shortage right now, due to incredulous demand from the AI sector. You might think these price hikes will just affect PC builders and companies buying components, but RAM is in pretty much everything computing, including consoles. Nintendo especially seems to have taken a hit, as it has lost $14 billion in value due to growing fears.
This report comes via Bloomberg, which shows that Nintendo shares have been declined on almost every day trade in December thus far as RAM shortage fears continue to grow. Nintendo now has to spend 41% more on getting the 12GB RAM chips it uses for the Nintendo Switch 2, and it is believed it's a matter of when, not if the price of the console will rise.
"The rise of NAND prices is starting to really impact express SD card prices," said Pelham Smithers of Pelham Smithers Associates, raising another issue with the chip shortages. "A 256GB express SD card costs $89.99 on Amazon. This is effectively a cost that Nintendo has passed on to the gamer."
We'll have to see whether Nintendo and other gaming companies can weather the storm, or if we're soon going to be reminiscing about game consoles costing less than $1000 due to RAM shortages. Scary times.