ROG Xbox Ally X Gets a Price Hike in Australia Amid RAM Crisis

Image via ROG Xbox Ally

The ROG Xbox Ally X has received a price increase in Australia, jumping from AU$1,599 to AU$1,799 at major retailers.

That is a AU$200 bump, and it is not a small one. For context, traditional consoles like the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X typically see price hikes in the range of AU$30 to AU$50. So yeah, this one stings a bit more.

Retailers, including JB Hi-Fi and ASUS Direct, have already updated their listings to reflect the new price (via PC Gamer).

This is not the first time Ally X has seen a region-specific price jump. Earlier this week, Japan saw a similar increase. The ROG Xbox Ally X went from ¥139,800 to ¥169,800 on the official ASUS website, which works out to roughly an AU$196 equivalent increase (via VGC).

Interestingly, the standard ROG Xbox Ally remained untouched in both regions, keeping its price steady.

The Ally X packs 24GB of LPDDR5X-8000 RAM and 1TB of storage, while the cheaper Ally makes do with 16GB of LPDDR5-6400 RAM and 512GB of storage. The Ally X uses faster, more premium memory, and that is exactly the kind of component being hit hardest right now.

The broader cause here is what many are calling the RAM and storage crisis, largely fueled by the ongoing AI boom. AI infrastructure demands enormous amounts of memory and storage, leaving less supply available for consumer electronics.

The effects of this crisis are showing up everywhere. Valve recently confirmed that the Steam Deck will be "out-of-stock intermittently in some regions due to memory and storage shortages." The Steam Machine and Steam Frame hardware have also been pushed back.

As per reports from Bloomberg, Sony may be considering delaying the PlayStation 6 all the way to 2028 or 2029, while Nintendo is reportedly looking at a price increase for the Switch 2.

Outside of Australia and Japan, prices for the Ally lineup have not officially changed yet. The Xbox Ally currently sits at $599 and £499, while the Ally X holds at $999 and £799 in the US and UK, respectively. Whether those prices stay that way for long remains to be seen.