SanDisk has revealed the pricing for its new line of ‘officially-licensed’ PlayStation 5 SSDs, with the top-of-the-range mannequin costing almost $3,000.
The storage agency introduced its Optimus GX PRO vary on Tuesday, which drops the WD_Black branding and affords as much as 8TB of storage on an “formally licensed drive for the PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 5 Professional consoles.”
Unsurprisingly, it’s the SSD vary’s pricing that has caught probably the most consideration, with the 8TB mannequin costing $2,960 USD (which, in response to SanDisk, is discounted from $3,700), and even the 2TB retailing for over $100 greater than a base PlayStation 5 console.
A 1TB mannequin retails for $380, a 2TB mannequin for $760, and a 4TB mannequin for $1500.
The pricing once more highlights the worldwide surge in part costs, pushed by demand for AI datacentres and forcing most shopper electronics firms to boost their product costs drastically.
As famous by PC Half Picker, a near-identical 8GB SSD drive from SanDisk would have value round $640 lower than a yr in the past, representing a 370% improve in value.
In March, Sony raised the worth of all PS5 fashions by no less than $100, and Xbox’s CEO lately claimed that it was dealing with a four-times-increase in the price of elements to construct its consoles.
The PS5 value will increase, which Sony blames on the “international financial panorama”, imply that the worth of the most cost effective Digital Version console has swollen by 50% ($200 / £200) for the reason that platform launched in 2020.
Microsoft raised the costs of its Xbox consoles twice final yr. A regular Xbox Collection X console now retails for $649.99, up $150 since launch, and the cheaper Collection S sells for $399.99, a rise of $100.
The worldwide financial state of affairs has positioned additional strain on recreation console producers, which have traditionally lowered costs over time. At this stage of PlayStation 4’s lifecycle, the console retailed for as little as $200.
Earlier this month, Xbox CEO Asha Sharma referred to as the state of affairs a “disaster”.
“After I joined as CEO in February, the worth we paid for console storage elements was over 2x as excessive as we paid final fall. These prices have since doubled once more. And as we plan for the 2027 vacation season, we count on one other important improve, taking us over 5x the costs we paid solely two years earlier.
“Reminiscence prices have adopted a broadly comparable trajectory. Whereas the complete trade is dealing with a elements disaster, we consider we’ve got been impacted extra enormously than a lot of our friends as a result of decisions we made over the past half decade. We’re at present unable to make as many consoles as gamers wish to purchase, and we’d like a brand new enterprise mannequin and partnerships for {hardware} as we stay dedicated to Helix.”
