Forget saving up for GTA 6. Gamers might want to start building a separate fund for the PlayStation 6, because Sony’s next console could cost over $1,000. According to hardware insider KeplerL2, the PS6’s RAM and SSD alone now cost more than $680, before Sony has even paid for its processor, graphics hardware, cooling system, or the rest of the machine. The culprit? Surging memory prices as AI data centres gobble up computing hardware.
The latest claim comes from KeplerL2, a hardware insider who shared the estimate on the NeoGAF forums. According to the leaker, RAM and NAND storage for the PlayStation 6 now cost more than $680 per console. That’s a particularly painful number when the standard PS5 currently costs $649.99 in the US.
In other words, the reported cost of two components for Sony’s next console could exceed the retail price of its current-generation machine. And the PS6 still needs an actual processor, graphics hardware, a motherboard, cooling, a power supply, and a case. The latest $680 figure covers memory and storage alone, not the entire console, and neither estimate has been verified by Sony. Still, the direction of travel isn’t encouraging.
AI data centres are driving demand for memory, pushing up costs for companies building everything from servers to consumer electronics. For context, KeplerL2 also stated that GDDR7 memory for the console is now estimated to cost around $20 to $23 per gigabyte, compared with roughly $3 per gigabyte when console chip designs were initially being planned. That’s one expensive memory upgrade.
A $1,000-plus PS6 isn’t confirmed, and Sony hasn’t even revealed the console’s specs or launch date. But with component costs soaring, the days of consoles being the affordable gateway to gaming could be numbered.
Sony could absorb some costs or tweak the hardware, but considering its push towards digital gaming at the expense of physical discs, it’s hard to see them put players before profits. And with Microsoft’s Project Helix also rumoured to cross $1,000, perhaps the next console war won’t be about teraflops or frame rates, but which company can make gamers go broke a little less painfully.
The Call of Duty franchise has held a special place in my heart ever since I played my first Black Ops game back in 2010. That game's campaign was something else, with twists and turns that culminated in a mind-blowing finale. We can all admit that compared to those older campaigns, the recent CODs have been lackluster at best, and a complete and utter disappointment at worst. The reboot of Modern Warfare did give me some hope, as the first two installments were actually quite good, but the third game left such a bad taste in my mouth that I wasn’t exactly expecting much from Modern Warfare 4.
After recently finishing the campaign, I can say that this installment is nothing like the recent releases and instead feels closer to the franchise’s roots. For the first time in a long while, the campaign comes across as well-crafted rather than rushed to hit a release date. It arrives three years after MW3, and you can see exactly where all that time went. It seems the studio finally made listening to player feedback a priority.
Epic Games has just announced the 2026 Epic AI MegaJam, which is looking to see how much game development can be squeezed into a very short window. This is running from November 12 through November 15.
Participants can work alone or in teams of up to five people, build in Unreal Engine or Unreal Editor for Fortnite, and bring along “as many AI agents as you want.” Epic explicitly encourages coding agents, AI-generated assets, audio tools, writing tools, and other AI systems. The official event page literally says "Vibe your way to $50k.”
It’s turning into a pretty good time to be a Monster Hunter fan who plays on a phone. Capcom has confirmed that Monster Hunter Outlanders will launch on Android and iOS on October 29, giving the series a new mobile-first game just as Monster Hunter Rise is also preparing to make the jump to smartphones through Netflix.
Outlanders is being developed by Tencent subsidiary TiMi Studio Group under license and supervision from Capcom. Unlike Rise, which appears to be the full console and PC game adapted for mobile, Outlanders is a free-to-play survival hunting game made specifically for phones.