Towards the end of 2025, the global semiconductor market was hit by an unprecedented memory shortage, which still lingers. The effect has trickled to device manufacturers and end users. The shortage is expected to persist until 2027, but Sony has plans to navigate through the shortage.
The price of DRAM has continued to rise, partially influenced by demand from AI data centers, disrupting the demand and supply balance. The situation has become more dire since the publication of the IDC November device forecasts.
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The shortage has forced Valve to delay the release of all the Steam hardware (Steam Machine, Steam Controller, and Steam Frame VR headset) it announced in November. Valve fingered the memory shortages as the reason why there is still no set price and release dates for the upcoming Steam hardware.
“When we announced these products in November, we planned on being able to share specific pricing and launch dates by now,” Valve wrote in a new blog.
“But the memory and storage shortages you’ve likely heard about across the industry have rapidly increased since then. The limited availability and growing prices of these critical components mean we must revisit our exact shipping schedule and pricing (especially around Steam Machine and Steam Frame).”
Sony said the “conditions in the console hardware market during the year-end selling season were more challenging than expected,” undoubtedly because of the memory shortage. Nevertheless, they were able to hit their projected sales numbers.
Sony said they are “already in a position to secure the minimum quantity [of DRAM] necessary to manage the year-end selling season of next fiscal year. Going forward, we intend to further negotiate with various suppliers to secure enough supply to meet the demand of our customers.”
“Given the stage of our console cycle, our hardware sales strategy can be adjusted flexibly, and we intend to minimize the impact of the increased memory costs on this segment going forward by prioritizing monetization of the installed base to date and striving to further expand our software and network services revenue.”
When do you think the DRAM shortage will start to ease off? Share your thoughts in the comment box below.
