According to well-known AMD leaker Kepler_L2, the price of Sony's highly anticipated PS6 handheld will be higher than expected. The leaker posted on the NeoGAF forum stating that it is currently "absolutely impossible" for Sony to keep the handheld's price under $600, with the ongoing global memory crisis being the primary culprit.
Rumors about the PS6 handheld have been circulating for some time, but we still know very little about its specific hardware configuration. However, there are credible reports suggesting that this handheld will feature an APU codenamed "Canis," utilizing Zen 6 LP cores and equipped with LPDDR5X memory.
The problem lies precisely with the latter. Driven by unprecedented demand from data centers due to the AI boom, LPDDR memory prices are rising significantly, which directly increases the manufacturing cost of the handheld.
The PS6 handheld was originally intended to be Sony's "more affordable" option, positioned below the PS6 console. Rumors also suggest that the PS6 console itself will be priced over $1,000.
Previously, Kepler_L2 revealed that the bill of materials (BOM) cost for the PS6 was already around $960, making the prospect of an affordable PS6 console hard to imagine. Now, the same issue is appearing with the PS6 handheld, posing a pricing dilemma for Sony.
In fact, this situation is not surprising. Memory price increases have affected the entire gaming hardware market this year. Due to rising GDDR memory prices, both AMD and NVIDIA have seen multiple graphics card price hikes recently. Valve's Steam Machine also ended up with a final retail price far higher than its initial target of around $750, largely due to increased memory costs.
Kepler_L2 also mentioned in another comment that the impact of further GDDR memory price increases on the PS6 console might be relatively limited, as Sony's CFO recently confirmed that the company has secured its memory supply for the entire year. However, AMD typically purchases memory on a quarterly basis, so the PS6 could still face further price hikes in the future.
Of course, Sony has not confirmed any of this information. However, these rumors have been circulating for some time and all point in the same direction. If component costs continue to rise at this rate, it will be difficult for Sony to price the PS6 handheld competitively upon its release.
Furthermore, if the PS6 handheld ends up priced close to $800 while the PS6 console itself is around $1,000, consumers will have little reason to purchase the handheld. Especially given the already fierce competition in the handheld gaming market, such a price would undoubtedly further diminish the appeal of the PS6 handheld.