ROG Xbox Ally X Gets Nearly $200 Price Hike in Japan Amidst Global Memory and Storage Shortages

As the memory and storage crisis continues to deteriorate, it is said that ROG Xbox Ally X has also been priced up in Japan. It’s a nearly $200 more cost in the country to buy the best Xbox-branded handheld from Asus, which is now on sale for almost two decades. The price of the lower-end ROG Xbox Ally, however, has not been lowered.

Japan’s outlet Otaku Souken (via VGC) saw the price hike. The price of the ROG Xbox Ally X has increased from JPY 139,800 ($910) to JPGY (169,600$1,106) that’s an increase of JPA 30,000 — or nearly $200. The ROG Xbox Ally with 16GB RAM is still at JPY 89,800 ($585) for price.

While Asus hasn’t officially announced the price hike, it said that the new price is now shown on the company’s official online store in Japan and also on e-commerce websites of other electronics retailers in this country.

ROG Xbox Ally X runs on AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme chipset

Memory Shortage Impact on Gaming Hardware

The price hike has not been explained, but the report cites memory and storage supply shortage as one of the reasons for this increase. The gaming hardware market has been hit hard by the ongoing RAM and SSD shortages and price hikes that have impacted the game’s overall performance, which is still under pressure from its current processor (RAM) and HD. Amid a short supply of consumer grade memory and storage, GPUs and even some gaming console prices in recent months have increased.

Price hikes have been sharply increased in Consumer PC hardware (especially memory and storage) amid a short supply driven by high AI demand for chips. Prices for RAM and SSD have doubled or triple compared to the past few months, with RAM being an expensive option.

However, the market conditions have also been prevailing for video game consoles and has taken on most of the pressures that are currently facing them. Sony and Microsoft lowered the price of the PS5 and Xbox Series S/X in 2025, even before the memory shortage began.

A recent year, the price of Asus, MSI and Lenovo’s new generation of Windows-based handhelds also went up sharply last year as prices reached their $1,000 price point. The chip crisis led to Nintendo considering increasing the price of the Nintendo Switch 2 in 2026, Bloomberg reported this week.

Nintendo could hike the price of the Switch 2 in 2026
Photo Credit: Nintendo

Moreover, the lack of memory that has been associated with AI-driven memory is also having an impact on availability of several devices. Valve recently confirmed that the Steam Deck OLED was out of stock in the US just this week, citing RAM and storage shortages.

The chip crisis is also said to have a significant impact on Sony and Microsoft’s plans for the next generation of consoles. Bloomberg reported that the PlayStation parent could end up laying down the PS6 to 2028 or even 2029, according to Bloomberg. Seven years after the release of ninth-gen consoles, PS5 and Xbox Series S/X, next-generation console was initially thought to be targeting a 2027 launch for next generation console. And so, that may not be the case now for s. Similarly, Microsoft is said to be not ‘fully committed’ to launch the next Xbox (a PC/console hybrid running Windows) in 2027.

The Steam Machine, a future PC/console hybrid that Valve confirmed earlier this month may have to be delayed because of memory and storage shortages, it said in. It was originally intended for a SteamOS-based gaming console to be “early 2026” and will launch in the “first half of 20 26” version. market conditions and has struggled to finalise the console’s price, Valve has.

The Xbox Ally and the ROG Xbox ally X were released in October 2025 as well as the newer, more recently called “the ROg” (RoG) Xbox One. The two handhelds are based on AMD Ryzen Z2 family of chipsets and feature Windows 11 with a custom Xbox interface on top.