GameStop is now asking $1,399.99 for a refurbished PlayStation 5 Pro, a price hike of roughly 55% over the console’s own new-unit price and exactly double what Sony charged at launch. The retailer bumped the pre-owned listing from around $800 to $1,399.99 on October 6, 2026, according to Tom’s Hardware, at a moment when new PS5 Pro units remain hard to find at Sony’s own store, Best Buy, and Target. The timing is brutal for Sony: Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto VI is scheduled to launch November 19, 2026, and demand for PlayStation hardware typically spikes in the weeks before a tentpole release like it.
The refurbished price spike is not an isolated retail quirk. It is the sharpest consumer-facing symptom yet of a global memory chip shortage that has pushed DRAM and NAND flash contract prices higher for 18 and 21 consecutive months, respectively, as AI data centers absorb capacity that used to go toward consumer electronics. Microsoft and Nintendo have already raised console prices twice in the past 14 months for the same reason. Sony’s PS5 Pro, the most memory-hungry mainstream console on the market, is now the clearest example of what happens when a hardware business collides with an AI-driven commodity squeeze it cannot control.
What Happened: GameStop’s $1,399.99 Refurbished PS5 Pro Listing
On October 6, 2026, GameStop’s online storefront listed certified pre-owned PlayStation 5 Pro consoles at $1,399.99, up from a prior refurbished price of roughly $800, as first reported by Tom’s Hardware. The outlet framed the increase bluntly, noting the new figure sat only $100 to $150 below the going price of a new unit, which it pegged at $899.99. In other words, buying “used” no longer meant buying cheap. The listing coincided with new PS5 Pro stock drying up across Sony’s direct storefront and multiple major US retailers, pushing some shoppers toward GameStop’s refurbished inventory as one of the only available paths to the console.
Several outlets reporting on the story, including a regional outlet that converted the figures for a Southeast Asian audience, put the markup at approximately 55% above the current new-unit price. That number lines up with GameStop’s own math: $1,399.99 divided by $899.99 works out to roughly 1.556, or a 55.6% premium. Against Sony’s original November 2024 launch price of $699.99, the refurbished listing represents a full 100% increase, meaning a buyer today pays twice what an early adopter paid two years ago for what is, in theory, a used console with wear and a shorter remaining warranty.
PS5 Pro Price History: From $699.99 Toward $899.99
Sony launched the PS5 Pro on November 7, 2024, as a digital-only console priced at $699.99, with the optional disc drive and vertical stand sold separately. That pricing held for most of 2025, a year in which tariff policy and early signs of the memory squeeze began pushing component costs upward across the entire console industry. Reporting during that period pointed to an increase to $749.99 for the PS5 Pro as Sony, like its rivals, began passing some of the new cost pressure on to buyers.
By October 2026, Tom’s Hardware and other outlets were citing an $899.99 price tag for new PS5 Pro units, a figure that reflects both official repricing and the practical reality of scarce inventory pushing listed prices higher across retail channels. Lay the numbers end to end and the PS5 Pro has effectively gained about $200 in list price, a 28.6% increase, since its debut less than two years ago. That is a steep climb for a console that was already the most expensive mainstream PlayStation hardware ever sold at launch.
| Date / Event | Price | Change vs. Launch |
|---|---|---|
| Nov. 7, 2024 – PS5 Pro launch (digital-only) | $699.99 | – |
| 2025 – reported US price adjustment | $749.99 | +7.1% |
| 2026 – new-unit price reported by Tom’s Hardware | $899.99 | +28.6% |
| Pre-October 2026 – GameStop refurbished price | ~$800 | +14.3% |
| Oct. 6, 2026 – GameStop refurbished price | $1,399.99 | +100% |
Why Memory Chips Are Driving Console Prices Higher
Every modern console depends on two commodity components that have nothing to do with gaming: DRAM for system memory and NAND flash for storage. Both are now caught in the middle of the AI infrastructure build-out, as hyperscalers buy up high-bandwidth memory and server-grade DRAM for data center expansion at prices consumer electronics makers cannot match. TrendForce, the memory market research firm whose quarterly contract-price surveys set the industry benchmark, has tracked this shift closely through 2026, and the numbers are stark.
According to reporting from the Chosun Ilbo citing TrendForce data, DRAM contract prices rose for 18 consecutive months and NAND flash prices rose for 21 consecutive months through September 2026, both hitting new record highs. That is not a short-term spike; it is a sustained, nearly two-year climb that console makers have had to absorb or pass along. TrendForce’s own September 30 forecast, published on its press center, projected conventional DRAM contract prices would rise another 10% to 15% quarter over quarter in the fourth quarter of 2026, with NAND flash climbing 15% to 20% in the same period, driven almost entirely by AI server demand.
TrendForce Data: DRAM and NAND Prices Hit New Highs in Q4 2026
The quarter-by-quarter trajectory for 2026 helps explain why console pricing has moved in stair steps rather than one clean jump. TrendForce’s third-quarter note, published in July and archived on its press center, forecast conventional DRAM rising 13% to 18% quarter over quarter alongside NAND flash gaining 10% to 15%. NAND had already climbed an estimated 55% to 60% in the first quarter and a brutal 70% to 75% in the second quarter of 2026, per TrendForce figures cited by industry trackers. Evertiq’s coverage of the same TrendForce forecast stressed that AI servers, not consumer electronics, are now the primary demand driver, with suppliers deliberately prioritizing enterprise SSD and HBM output over the lower-margin chips that go into game consoles and PCs.
| Quarter (2026) | DRAM contract price change (QoQ) | NAND flash contract price change (QoQ) |
|---|---|---|
| Q1 2026 | Rising sharply, no isolated DRAM figure reported | +55% to +60% |
| Q2 2026 | +58% to +63% | +70% to +75% |
| Q3 2026 | +13% to +18% | +10% to +15% |
| Q4 2026 (forecast) | +10% to +15% | +15% to +20% |
The compounding effect of that sequence is the real story. A chip category that gains 13% one quarter and another 10% the next does not just add those two numbers; it multiplies them against an already-inflated base. That is why industry analysis, including a briefing from Compare the Cloud aimed at enterprise IT buyers, now describes the memory shortage as structural rather than cyclical, with no analyst quoted in that briefing expecting meaningful relief before late 2027.
AI Demand vs. Console Demand: Who Wins the Memory War
Console makers are, in blunt terms, losing a bidding war they did not start. Memory fabs allocate wafer capacity months in advance, and when a hyperscaler like a cloud provider commits to long-term HBM contracts for AI training clusters, that capacity is gone for consumer products regardless of what Sony, Microsoft, or Nintendo are willing to pay per unit. Game consoles use commodity LPDDR5X and standard NAND rather than the specialized HBM stacks that go into AI accelerators, but they draw from the same constrained pool of fab capacity and the same wafer starts, so price pressure flows downstream even without direct competition for the exact same chip.
Microsoft put this dynamic in writing. In its own announcement of the August 2026 Xbox price increase, published on news.xbox.com, the company stated plainly that “console storage and memory prices have increased by more than 2.5x and we expect another doubling by the fall of 2027.” That is about as direct an acknowledgment as a platform holder has given that memory economics, not gaming demand, are setting console prices in 2026. It also suggests the pain is not close to over.
How the 2026 Memory Shortage Differs From the 2020-2022 Chip Crisis
Console shoppers have lived through a hardware shortage before. When the PS5 launched in November 2020, pandemic-era factory shutdowns, shipping container backlogs, and a surge in work-from-home electronics demand created a broad semiconductor shortage that made consoles nearly impossible to find at retail for roughly two years. Sony initially targeted around 22.6 million PS5 units for fiscal 2021, later cut that goal to about 15 million, and eventually reported more than 50 million PS5 units sold through to consumers by December 2023. That shortage was fundamentally about logistics and total fabrication capacity colliding with a demand spike nobody planned for.
The 2026 shortage looks different in cause even if it feels similar at the shelf. There is no shipping crisis and no pandemic-driven demand shock for consumer electronics broadly; consumer demand for PCs and consoles is, if anything, described by TrendForce as weakening. What has changed is where fabs choose to point their existing, growing capacity. AI infrastructure spending has made HBM and server DRAM dramatically more profitable per wafer than consumer DRAM and NAND, so manufacturers are deliberately reallocating supply rather than struggling to produce enough of everything. It is a shortage of priority, not a shortage of total manufacturing capability.
Sony’s Response: Securing Supply While Managing Costs
Sony has not stayed silent on the memory squeeze, even if its public language has been more measured than Microsoft’s. In investor materials earlier in 2026, the company acknowledged that rising memory prices increase bill-of-materials costs and worsen manufacturing economics, and that passing those increases on to consumers carries real risk to hardware adoption. Sony also said it had secured the memory volumes it needed to support its planned PlayStation 5 production for the fiscal year and still expected hardware profitability broadly in line with the prior year, a sign the company is managing the squeeze through long-term supply contracts rather than panic buying on the spot market.
That corporate-level supply security does not necessarily trickle down evenly to every retail channel, which helps explain why GameStop’s refurbished inventory, sourced through trade-ins and open-box returns rather than Sony’s own supply chain, can spike independently of what Sony itself charges for a new unit. Refurbished pricing often reflects scarcity psychology as much as hard component costs: if new units are hard to find anywhere, a working used console becomes worth more to a buyer who needs a PS5 Pro now, not whenever restocks arrive.
Retail Landscape: GameStop, Scalpers, and Scarcity Pricing
The PS5 Pro shortage is playing out differently across retail channels. GameStop’s refurbished listing is the most visible and the most quoted figure, but it sits inside a broader pattern of new units simply not being available at list price through official channels. When Sony’s own direct store and major big-box retailers show PS5 Pro as out of stock, the effective price for an in-hand console becomes whatever the secondary market, including GameStop’s certified pre-owned program and third-party marketplace sellers, decides to charge. That is precisely the dynamic TechSpot flagged when it sarcastically described GameStop’s $1,399.99 listing as a price positioned “as if that were a deal,” because new units through unofficial channels were commanding similarly inflated prices.
This is the same scarcity-pricing pattern seen elsewhere in the hardware market this year, where GPUs facing memory-driven production constraints have traded well above MSRP on resale markets. The PS5 Pro case is notable mainly because it is a mainstream consumer product, not an enthusiast GPU, meaning far more ordinary buyers are running into the markup directly.
GTA 6’s November Launch Intensifies Console Demand
Timing makes the shortage worse. Grand Theft Auto VI is scheduled to launch on November 19, 2026, and Rockstar’s games have historically driven measurable console hardware sales spikes in the weeks around release, as lapsed players and newcomers buy or upgrade hardware specifically to play day one. Tom’s Hardware explicitly tied the current PS5 Pro scarcity to pre-GTA 6 demand, noting that brand-new units remained out of stock at Sony’s own store and other major retailers heading into the game’s launch window.
That combination, a structural memory shortage layered on top of a seasonal demand spike for the biggest game release of the decade, is what pushed GameStop’s refurbished inventory from a backup option into a $1,399.99 line item that some buyers will pay anyway rather than wait. It is a reminder that console shortages are rarely caused by one factor; they are usually the product of a baseline supply constraint meeting a specific, predictable demand event.
Competitive Comparison: PS5 Pro vs. Xbox Series X vs. Switch 2 Pricing
Sony is not alone in raising prices, and that matters for how this story should be read. Every major console maker has now repriced hardware at least once in the past 14 months, and all three have pointed to memory and storage costs as a central reason. Microsoft raised Xbox prices twice: first by $20 to $70 in October 2025, then again on August 1, 2026, pushing the Xbox Series X disc model from $649.99 to $799.99 and the digital edition from $599.99 to $749.99, a $150 jump on the 1TB models. Nintendo followed with its own increase, raising the Switch 2 from $449.99 to $499.99 effective September 1, 2026, which multiple outlets attributed to rising memory and storage component costs combined with tariff-related pressure.
| Console | Original Price | Current US Price (Oct. 2026) | Total Increase | Stated Reason |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PlayStation 5 Pro | $699.99 (Nov. 2024) | $899.99 (new, reported) | +28.6% | Memory/component costs |
| Xbox Series X (1TB disc) | $649.99 | $799.99 (effective Aug. 1, 2026) | +23.1% | Memory/storage costs “increased by more than 2.5x” |
| Xbox Series X (1TB digital) | $599.99 | $749.99 (effective Aug. 1, 2026) | +25% | Memory/storage costs |
| Nintendo Switch 2 | $449.99 | $499.99 (effective Sept. 1, 2026) | +11.1% | Memory/storage costs, tariffs |
Looked at side by side, the PS5 Pro’s price increase is not the largest in percentage terms, but it is the console where the squeeze has shown up most visibly to ordinary shoppers, because the shortage pushed secondary-market pricing past new-unit pricing rather than simply raising the sticker price once and stopping there. Xbox and Switch 2 buyers have absorbed one or two clean price increases; PS5 Pro buyers are now facing a resale market that has effectively detached from any official price point.
Market Impact: What This Means for Console Makers and Consumers
For console makers, the memory shortage creates a genuine strategic bind. Raise prices too aggressively and you risk the kind of hardware sales slump some outlets have already flagged, with overall video game hardware sales reportedly falling to a 13-year low in 2026 as cumulative price increases push buyers to delay purchases or stick with older, cheaper consoles. Hold prices steady and absorb the cost, and margins on every unit sold shrink at a time when memory now represents a larger share of the bill of materials than at any point in the PS5 or Xbox Series X generation.
For consumers, the practical effect is a narrower window for getting a console at anything close to its intended price. Shoppers who already own a PS5 Pro are, in one sense, insulated, but anyone trying to buy one new ahead of GTA 6 is now choosing between an out-of-stock official channel, a marked-up secondary market, or waiting and hoping restocks arrive before the game does. That dynamic also benefits resellers and refurbishers, who can capture margin precisely because official supply is constrained, a pattern familiar from the 2020-2022 shortage but now driven by a completely different root cause.
Historical Context: Console Shortages Through the Years
Console scarcity is not new, but its causes keep shifting. The PS2 and original Xbox both saw regional launch-window shortages tied to manufacturing ramp-up limits. The PS5 and Xbox Series X launches in late 2020 ran into a much longer, pandemic-driven shortage that stretched into 2022, mixing semiconductor capacity limits with global shipping chaos and scalper bot activity that made both consoles nearly unobtainable at retail for well over a year. The Nintendo Switch faced its own, milder component-driven shortages during 2020 as well, tied to the same broad pandemic disruption.
What makes 2026 distinct is that the shortage is not about any single console’s popularity or any specific factory going offline. It is an economy-wide reallocation of memory manufacturing capacity toward AI infrastructure, a trend with no historical precedent in console hardware. Previous shortages eventually resolved as factories caught up with demand. The current one may not resolve the same way, because the competing demand (AI data centers) is not seasonal or cyclical; it is a sustained, multi-year capital expenditure cycle from some of the best-funded companies in the world.
Industry Predictions: Where Console and Memory Prices Go From Here
- Further console price increases are likely in 2027. Microsoft has already told customers directly to expect memory and storage costs to roughly double again by the fall of 2027, which makes another round of Xbox pricing action probable, and gives Sony and Nintendo cover to follow if they choose.
- Refurbished and secondary-market pricing will stay volatile through the GTA 6 launch window. Expect GameStop-style markups on other hard-to-find hardware configurations through at least December 2026, easing only once initial post-launch demand settles.
- TrendForce’s own data points to continued, if decelerating, price growth into 2027. The forecasted 10-15% DRAM and 15-20% NAND increases for Q4 2026 suggest the rate of increase may be slowing from the 50-75% spikes seen earlier in 2026, but prices are still rising, not falling.
- Console makers will increasingly separate “memory tier” from feature tier in marketing. Expect more SKUs, discontinued configurations (as Microsoft already did by killing its 2TB Xbox model), and clearer messaging tying specific price points to storage capacity rather than bundling everything into one number.
- Hardware sales volume, not just price, will be the metric to watch. With overall video game hardware sales already reported at a 13-year low, the real test of how much pricing power console makers have left comes in how much further unit sales slip through the critical holiday quarter.
What PS5 Pro Buyers Should Do Right Now
Anyone shopping for a PS5 Pro ahead of GTA 6 faces an unusually clear tradeoff. Paying $1,399.99 for a refurbished unit from GameStop means paying roughly double Sony’s original 2024 launch price for hardware that is, by definition, not new. Waiting for official restocks at $899.99 saves a meaningful amount of money but carries no guaranteed timeline, especially with holiday demand compounding the existing memory shortage. Checking Sony’s direct store daily, setting stock alerts at Best Buy and Walmart, and treating any GameStop refurbished unit as a last resort rather than a default option are the most practical steps available until supply loosens. For buyers who do not specifically need the Pro’s enhanced ray tracing and upscaling, a standard PS5 at a lower, more stable price point remains a far less painful path onto the platform before GTA 6 arrives.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why did GameStop raise the refurbished PS5 Pro price to $1,399.99?
GameStop raised its certified pre-owned PS5 Pro listing from roughly $800 to $1,399.99 on October 6, 2026, as new-unit stock grew scarce across Sony’s own store and major retailers, driven by a global DRAM and NAND memory shortage and demand ahead of the November 19, 2026, launch of Grand Theft Auto VI.
How much does a new PS5 Pro cost in October 2026?
New PS5 Pro units were reported at $899.99 by Tom’s Hardware in October 2026, up from the console’s $699.99 launch price in November 2024 and a reported $749.99 price point during 2025.
Is the PS5 Pro shortage caused by the same issues as the 2020-2022 chip shortage?
No. The 2020-2022 shortage stemmed from pandemic-related factory shutdowns, shipping disruptions, and a broad consumer electronics demand spike. The 2026 shortage is driven by memory manufacturers reallocating DRAM and NAND production capacity toward AI data center demand, not a lack of total manufacturing capability.
Have Xbox and Nintendo Switch 2 prices also increased because of the memory shortage?
Yes. Microsoft raised Xbox Series X prices twice, most recently on August 1, 2026, pushing the 1TB disc model from $649.99 to $799.99, citing memory and storage costs that it said had increased by more than 2.5 times. Nintendo raised the Switch 2 from $449.99 to $499.99 effective September 1, 2026, also citing component costs and tariffs.
Will memory prices keep rising in 2027?
TrendForce’s Q4 2026 forecast projects conventional DRAM contract prices rising another 10% to 15% quarter over quarter, with NAND flash up 15% to 20%, and Microsoft has publicly stated it expects memory and storage costs to roughly double again by the fall of 2027, suggesting continued upward pressure rather than near-term relief.
Should I buy a refurbished PS5 Pro right now?
Only if you need the console immediately for the GTA 6 launch window and cannot wait for restocks. At $1,399.99, GameStop’s refurbished price is close to double the console’s original launch price and offers no clear savings versus waiting for new stock at $899.99, unless new-unit availability remains effectively zero in your area.
Is Sony planning to officially raise the PS5 Pro’s MSRP again?
Sony has not announced a confirmed, permanent MSRP change beyond the pricing already reported by outlets like Tom’s Hardware in 2026. In investor materials, the company said it had secured the memory volumes needed for its planned fiscal-year PlayStation 5 production and expected hardware profitability broadly similar to the prior year, suggesting it is managing cost pressure through supply contracts rather than signaling an imminent additional price hike.
Why is NAND flash rising faster than DRAM in some quarters?
TrendForce data shows NAND flash contract prices rose an estimated 55-75% in the first half of 2026, outpacing DRAM in percentage terms during that window, as enterprise SSD demand for AI storage accelerated faster than server DRAM demand in those specific quarters, though both categories have posted sustained, multi-quarter increases through all of 2026.
