Industry News
Switch 2 Hits $499.99 as Memory Crisis Lifts Console Prices
On September 1, 2026, Nintendo raised the Switch 2 from $449.99 to $499.99 in the US, Canada and Europe, blaming memory costs, exchange rates and oil prices. Microsoft moved a month earlier, pushing the Xbox Series X disc model to $799.99 and discontinuing the 2TB version; Sony lifted the PS5 Pro to $899 in March. Consumer DRAM contract prices rose 89% in Q2 2026.
GTA 6 Crashes Netflix: 26 Minutes of Gameplay, 1,500 Error Reports, and 4.5 Million Waiting for November 19
Late on August 27, Rockstar premiered a 26-minute extended gameplay demo of GTA 6 exclusively on Netflix. Millions of players piled in at once and crashed Netflix's servers, which logged more than 1,500 outage reports within minutes — global pre-orders have since topped $260 million with over 4.5 million copies reserved.
Sony Says "You Don't Own the Games You Buy" — Microsoft Turns 174 Discs Digital
Sony argued in a California class action that a digital game purchase is only a "license," not ownership, so players don't "own" their games. The same week, Microsoft launched its Xbox "disc-to-digital" test, compatible with 174 games at launch. In the battle over ownership in the digital age, the two console giants are giving two very different answers.