The RAM shortage comes for us all, and Xbox is no different, as new division head Asha Sharma confirms that the RAM shortage will push the price of Project Helix up. That probably isn’t going to surprise many, as the issues with RAM in the market place have been driving up prices of all sorts of consumer electronics products. Samsung’s Galaxy S26 and Galaxy S26 Plus were both a little more expensive because of RAM and storage costs at the manufacturing level.
GPUs from several of NVIDIA’s and AMD’s board partners have gone up. Gaming laptops are now more expensive as well. As is just about anything with memory and storage in it. The highly anticipated Steam Machine, affectionately referred to in the community as the Gabe Cube, was also delayed and will likely cost more than it would have. So why would Project Helix get a pass? It’s a nice thought, but Microsoft is a business, and it’s rare that a business of Microsoft’s scale would eat costs like that as opposed to passing them on to the consumer.
The RAM shortage will impact availability of Project Helix in addition to pricing
Increased prices are one thing, but an impact to availability is potentially something that not a lot of people expected. In her interview with Game File’s Stephen Totilo, Sharma says that memory costs “Will impact pricing, will impact availability. As we think about being where the world plays, we will take that into consideration.”
This probably isn’t something that Xbox fans want to hear just a week after Sharma lowered Game Pass prices. Since taking over her new role, Sharma has changed the division name back to Xbox from Microsoft Gaming, lowered the prices of Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass, and confirmed a removal of future Call of Duty titles from Game Pass’s Day One access. She has also made suggestions about revisiting Xbox console exclusives. All basically good moves in the right direction for the brand and the Xbox platform.
While a price increase for this new console generation was more or less inevitable, some gamers will find it tough to justify these higher prices. Some rumors suggest that Project Helix could end up with a price tag of up to $1,200. That’s almost double the cost of current PS5 and Xbox Series X consoles with a disc drive.
The post Project Helix will be more expensive due to the RAM shortage appeared first on Android Headlines.
