ROG Xbox Ally X Price Hike in Japan Amid Memory Shortage Crisis

Memory Shortage Drives Price Shifts in Handhelds

The ROG Xbox Ally X has reportedly increased in price in Japan amid ongoing constraints in memory and storage supply. The top-end, Xbox-branded handheld from Asus is now listed at a higher price in the country. The development was spotted by the Japanese outlet Otaku Souken, reported via VGC. According to the outlet, the ROG Xbox Ally X rose from JPY 139,800 ($910) to JPY 169,800 ($1,106). That works out to a hike of JPY 30,000, or roughly $200. By contrast, the price of the lower-end ROG Xbox Ally with 16GB RAM remains unchanged at JPY 89,800 ($585).

Asus has not issued an official statement about the price change. Nevertheless, the new pricing is now reflected on the company’s official online store in Japan as well as on the e-commerce sites of other electronics retailers in the country, as noted by Otaku Souken via VGC.

Related to Price Increase and Launch Environment

The reported price increase comes from industry-wide calls for memory and storage shortages and how they affect gaming hardware. There has been a supply constraint for RAM and solid-state drives in recent months which has contributed to significant increases in consumer PC component prices, including memory, storage, GPUs and a number of gaming consoles. In addition to this, industry commentary suggests that demand from AI has been a contributor to increasing prices of RAM and SSDs.

Other sectors of the gaming hardware market are feeling the effects too. According to the report, both Sony and Microsoft raised prices on the PS5 and Xbox Series S/X prior to 2025, due to these general shortages. Additionally, new Windows-based handhelds from Asus, MSI, and Lenovo reportedly breached the $1,000 price point last year, reflecting the broader market constraints. Bloomberg this week also referenced a potential price consideration for Nintendo, with Nintendo reportedly weighing the price of the Nintendo Switch 2 in 2026 in light of the chip crisis.

In addition to handhelds, the AI-powered shortage of memory is causing a lack of device availability. Valve has stated that the Steam Deck OLED has been out of stock in the U.S. because of shortages of memory and storage, emphasizing how supply shortages can have far-reaching impacts on the availability of devices and release cycles.

Industry timing around next-generation consoles remains unsettled. Bloomberg reported that the PlayStation parent could delay the PS6 to 2028 or even 2029, moving away from an earlier target that would have seen a 2027 launch. Microsoft is also described as not being fully internally committed to launching the next Xbox, which is envisioned as a PC/console hybrid running Windows, in 2027. The overall theme of the market is that there could be delays or changes to release dates for future hardware due to ongoing chip shortages.

At the beginning of this year, Valve believe that their Steam machine should be released towards late 2020 but have since changed its expected release to the first half of 2021 due to lack of memory and disk. Final pricing for theSteam Machine has struggled to find certainty in the current market environment.

Context for the ROG Xbox Ally X and the Xbox Ally is rooted in their October 2025 launch. The two handhelds run on the AMD Ryzen Z2 family of chipsets and ship with Windows 11, featuring a custom Xbox interface on top. As part of an ongoing trend in pricing adjustments across the gaming ecosystem, the movement of the price of Japan's high-end model of the Xbox Series X is due to supply chain disruptions that continue to impact memory, storage and other related components.

Although Asus has not commented on the pricing increase, it is evident in the official store and major retailers in Japan that the pricing has changed. The backdrop of memory and storage shortages is the context within which to view trends in pricing among gaming handhelds, game consoles and other PC related gaming hardware, which demonstrates how supply constraints on components have affected prices for consumers of gaming.

The price of the Japan ROG Xbox Ally X is currently JPY 169,800 (or 1,106 USD), up from the prior pricing of JPY 139,800 (or approx 910 USD). The price of the ROG Xbox Ally with 16GB of RAM remains unchanged (at JPY 89,800 / approx 585 USD). The launch context is as follows:

• ROG Xbox Ally X and Xbox Ally, launched October 2025
• The ROG Xbox Ally X and Xbox Ally use an AMD Ryzen Z2 chipset and run on Windows 11, with customized Xbox interface.