We don’t have good news for players who have been postponing the purchase of the latest Microsoft hardware. Asus announces a price increase.
Asus and Microsoft last year introduced the first “portable Xboxes”. The equipment received mixed reviews – performance and capabilities were praised, but the price was criticized. Now it looks like players will not only not see any quick reductions, but will also have to prepare for the first increases in 2026.
Just before CES 2026, Asus warned trading partners about “strategic price adjustments” that will come into force on January 5. The company did not directly indicate which devices would become more expensive or by how much, but it is difficult not to associate this information with very expensive offers such as ROG Xbox Ally X, which already costs around $1,000. This is terrible news for players who were hoping that prices would go down in the new year.
The manufacturer directly admits that the problem is the rising cost of components and increasing shortages in the supply of DRAM, NAND and SSD memory. Asus explains that the price pressure results from the global AI race – semiconductor manufacturers are redirecting production capacity to the needs of artificial intelligence, which affects the availability of components for the consumer market. In other words: gamers are paying the price for the AI boom.
It is important to remember that this is just the beginning. According to industry reports, also giants such as NVIDIA and AMD are considering increasing the prices of graphics cards in 2026. Even small increases, amounting to hundreds of dollars, may further deepen the hardware availability crisis for PC gamers – and, consequently, also for hybrid and console devices.
There are also even more disturbing signals in the background. According to some sources, problems with memory availability are so great that console manufacturers have begun to consider delaying the next generation of hardware, including devices such as PlayStation 6 or the new Xbox. If RAM prices do not come down, the 2027–2028 schedules could be severely impacted.
In practice, everything indicates that 2026 will be another difficult period for players. Asus is the first to openly talk about price increases, but it is hard to believe that other manufacturers will last long without similar decisions. Rising costs, component shortages and the dominance of AI mean that this “first increase” may only be the beginning of much larger price changes in the entire gaming industry.
