Consoles and Gaming PCs Are More Expensive Than Ever, and the Hardware Crisis Could Last for Years

Corporations are eager to position artificial intelligence as the future of innovation, yet its benefits remain uncertain. What is already clear, however, is that these tools have triggered one of the most severe hardware crises in recent memory and the gaming sector is feeling the impact.

Since late last year, the prices of PC components and gaming consoles have climbed at an alarming pace. While some analysts remained cautiously optimistic that conditions would improve by 2026, the reality has proven far grimmer and today consoles and gaming PCs are more expensive than ever.

Worse still, all indications suggest that this downturn is not temporary. Costs are likely to continue rising, and further price hikes may be inevitable.

Epic Games Director Addresses Hardware Crisis and Shares Bad News

In the latest issue of Edge magazine, 9 industry experts weighed in on the current state of the video game industry. Among them was Tim Sweeney, founder and CEO of Epic Games.

Sweeney acknowledged that the sector is grappling with “internal dysfunctions,” citing soaring development budgets for AAA titles and the ongoing hardware supply crisis. He placed much of the blame squarely on the explosive growth of artificial intelligence.

“There’s an unprecedented wave of investment in building AI systems and data centres, based on the belief that they’re going to have a really transformational role in the economy,” Sweeney explained.

He further noted that the sheer scale of this financial opportunity dwarfs the entire entertainment industry, which ultimately spells trouble for gaming.

“We’re getting the short end of the stick, and the prices of RAM and storage are quadrupling, and not necessarily stopping there. We should expect there’s just going to be a continual supply crisis for all gaming-relevant hardware for the next three years,” he said.

When asked whether any solution exists to mitigate the growing crisis, Sweeney proposed a response: building massive new factories to meet surging global demand.

Regardless, his forecast of another three years of exorbitant memory and component prices is deeply concerning. Since these parts are essential for both gaming PCs and consoles, it is all but certain that these products will become even more costly over time.

Artificial Intelligence Is to Blame

Tim Sweeney says that the problem lies in the explosive demand from AI data centers, which require vast amounts of memory to process user requests and train complex models. As a result, AI companies are buying up nearly all available supply.

It should be noted that Sweeney’s criticism of AI is interesting as he previously mocked Steam for introducing labels that flag games using generative AI, yet his own company has faced backlash for incorporating similar technologies into Fortnite.

Still, Sweeney is far from alone in embracing these tools. Many studios now turn to generative AI to cut production costs or market new projects despite the technology remaining notoriously unreliable.

Just this week, major chatbots including ChatGPT, Gemini, and Grok suffered a widespread outage that left hundreds of thousands of users without service for hours.

Do you think console and gaming PC prices will continue to climb in the coming months? Share your thoughts in the comments.