A RAM shortage could leave PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series consoles scarce this holiday season around Grand Theft Auto 6's November 19 launch.
On the latest episode of "The Game Business Show", an anonymous source came forward and told The Game Business that there may not be enough PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series consoles to meet Grand Theft Auto VI demand this holiday season, and the culprit is a RAM shortage. If accurate, it means the console you need to play GTA 6 at launch on November 19 could be hard to find right when everyone wants one.
Just like that, the next Grand Theft Auto went from saving the console industry to forcing studios to squeeze themselves into September and now causing a shortage nearly seven years into the current console life cycle.
The worst part? The PlayStation 6 is only reportedly only a year away from being released.
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Keep in mind, though, that this is a single retailer source warning. Sony and Microsoft have not announced shortages, and retailers sometimes flag supply concerns that do not fully materialize. RAM prices are genuinely up, and the AI-driven memory crunch is real. However, just as a couple of retailers refusing to sell GTA 6 and another one launching a petition isn't enough to force a change at Take-Two Interactive, one retailer's credible heads-up doesn't affect the rest of the video game industry.
That said, the logic is sound enough that planning around it costs you nothing.
If you need a console for GTA 6 and there is a real chance supply tightens, you'll want to get a PS5 or Xbox Series S/X, or even a PS5 Pro now.
Of course, even if a shortage hits, it will not stop GTA 6 from being a massive success, and that is part of why this matters to Sony and Microsoft more than to Rockstar. GTA 6 sells regardless. The people hurt by a console shortage are the platform holders, missing hardware sales they should have captured, and the players stuck, unable to buy a machine. Rockstar still sells its tens of millions of copies to the people who already own consoles. So a shortage is a Sony and Microsoft problem, and a player problem. The game does not require consoles to be available to break records. There's plenty around as it is. It's the players who need available consoles to play it.
If consoles do get scarce during the GTA 6 season, scalpers will move in exactly like they did at the PS5 launch, buying up stock to resell at a markup to desperate players, and we're saying PS5 because it's the preferred platform for GTA 6, as per Sony and Rockstar.
So if you want to avoid the worst-case scenario, don't wait until the shelves are already empty.
Plan ahead, and Vice City will be waiting. Wait too long, and you might be watching everyone else play it first.
