Sony’s much-anticipated PlayStation 6 handheld is going to be more expensive than expected, at least according to prominent AMD leaker Kepler_L2. Posting on the NeoGAF forums, the leaker said that Sony keeping the handheld under $600 is definitely not possible right now, and the culprit, of course, is the ongoing global memory crisis.
Sony’s PS6 handheld has been rumored for a while now, but we know little about the actual hardware inside. There are, however, strong rumors of a “Canis” APU with Zen 6 LP cores paired with LPDDR5X memory. The latter is the issue here, as LPDDR memory is seeing huge price hikes due to unprecedented data center demand, driven by the AI boom, of course.
The PS6 handheld is supposed to be Sony’s “more affordable” option sliding under the PlayStation 6 console, which has also been rumored to cross the $1,000 price point. Kepler_L2 previously leaked that the BOM (bill of materials) cost for the PS6 has reached around $960, making an affordable PS6 console difficult to imagine. The same issue now affects the PS6 handheld, posing a pricing problem for Sony.
Of course, none of this is surprising. Gaming hardware has been getting affected by rising memory costs all year. We have seen multiple GPU price hikes from both AMD and NVIDIA recently, owing to rising GDDR prices. Valve’s Steam Machine was also priced well over its initial target of around $750, and the culprit for all of these is the same.
Kepler also mentioned in a separate comment that Sony’s PS6 is unlikely to be further affected by rising GDDR prices, since Sony’s CFO recently confirmed that Sony has secured memory for the entire year. However, AMD only tends to buy memory supply on a quarter-to-quarter basis, so they might still be looking at further hikes.
Sony, of course, hasn’t confirmed any of this. However, the rumors have been strong enough for a while, and all of them point in the same general direction. If component costs keep climbing this way, it will be hard for Sony to price the PS6 handheld in a way that’s competitive upon arrival.
Moreover, if the PS6 handheld is close to $800 and the actual PS6 is priced at or near $1,000, it would be really difficult to make a case for the handheld at that point, especially given the current landscape of gaming handhelds.
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[PC Hardware Specialist]
Usman Saleem brings 8+ years of comprehensive PC hardware expertise to the table. His journey in the tech world has involved in-depth tech analysis and insightful PC hardware reviews, perfecting over 6+ years of dedicated work. Usman’s commitment to staying authentic and relevant in the field is underscored by many professional certifications, including a recent one in Google IT Support Specialization.
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