Apparently Sony had stockpiled a bunch of ram at a lower price prior Sam Altman setting everyone on fire.  Most likely Sony had secured it thinking GTA would launch this year and if so the got super lucky. But... the actual size of the Ram stockpiled is unknown so we dont know how long they are insulated.  The idea is that if they have enough the could hold out long enough for prices to drop... but this is seeming less and less likely with each day.   Apparently Apple also has Ram stockpiled.   Xbox did not and clearly neither did Nintendo or Valve.

Seems a bit undertracked on the site. Switch shipped less right? And yet sold more? Even when ps5 had massive deals in europe( got mine for 340euros instead of 500)

Both Switch 1 and PS5 shipments are slowing down, so they're trying to close the gap between shipped and sold for both of them.

Meanwhile, Switch 2 is the young pup just getting started, Nintendo is anticipating to increase Switch 2 shipments, not decrease them, so the gap is going to be higher for Switch 2 than systems on the other side of the hill like Switch 1 and PS5.

PS5 is guaranteed to beat PS4 even with these challenges.

1. Sony keeps adjusting up their operating profits forecast despite these crazy deals in Europe. So they're not really losing much money on hardware. They're about to break their annual profitability record again. Granted RAMifications aren't at play yet, and we don't know anything about Sony's contracts.

2. Sony may release a stripped down PS5 with reduced storage (512 GB like Series S).

3. This generarion will no doubt last much longer than PS4's. PS4 saw a production cliff early in its 7th year. PS5's 7th year boosted by GTA6 should crush PS4's 2020.

4. The gap between shipped and sold through may be smaller than VGChartz estimates.

5. PS5 may remain in production post PS6.

6. The price gap between PC and console hardware is increasing (due in part to contracts and system RAM/DDR). Consoles are looking to gain a new selling point against PC.

Another thing is after estimates for the PS5 were fairly off some months ago it's nice to see that it appears to be pretty spot on for this quarter so keep up the good work. It should be easier to estimate PS5 sales going forward with it well past the peak now.

8m is definitely a little bit higher than I expected for this quarter. Sold the same as PS4 and didn't need GTA to do it. Next holiday it should sell a lot more than PS4 did.

For the quarter MAU's increased from 129m to 132m YoY, operating profit up by 20% YoY and the forecast for the whole fiscal year is now over $3.2 Billion in profit. Very good results.

Disappointed we didn't get sales updates for any games, though Yotei is ahead of Tsushima launch aligned.

"Speaking during an earnings call, transcribed by VGC, the platform holder stated that Yotei “exceeded the sales of the previous title in the same period of time” and “significantly” contributed to its latest results."

They bought ram with contracts early, before prices sky rocketed, and in large quantities... enough to last basically all of 2026 production wise.
They also stockpiled a huge amount, and also locked in for the year (2026) early (back in early 2025).  Ei. They planned ahead by over a years worth.
(this means if something changes, like the price, it doesn't affect them for upwards of a year or more)

MS apparently took a different approach, and didn't want to risk burning in with a large pile of components for a system that isn't selling much.
So they do small allocations of components as needed, when needed.  Which is bad, when prices sky rocket, and the next time you need to buy, your paying "sky high prices" for components.

 Sony is not insulated from Memory price crunch.
They just wont feel it until 2027.

It is not luck, or GTA delay.
It is a different approach to how they do business, than Microsoft with Xbox. 
Sony is a hardware business, and Japanese.... so they are set in their ways and value stability over other factors.
They probably always do these massive buy in's of components OR they have a guy with a good head on his shoulders that predicted this stuff, and acted early.

MLID claims it is a massive stockpile and contract's.... like a year's worth of production, worth of components.

This just means that the effects that might hit Xbox, will be delayed by a year's worth for Sony.
Xbox will either rise prices of their consoles because of ram in 2026, or eat the losses on each sale.

Another strong holiday quarter for Sony/PS5.

- The highest ever operating income for Q3
- PlayStation MAU has exceeded 132M+ for the quarter
- GoY is outselling GoT launch aligned

As stated, Sony has revealed that they have stockpiled ram and are good for the next ficsal at minimum levels. This would infer that we can get an idea for the stockpile based on their PS5 shipment projections for the next Fiscal Year (minimum levels). From this we can also infer that their should not be any price increase related to memory costs. Smart move on their part. No other way to say it.

Sony does not "stockpile memory". Memory goes from the manufacturer to the assembly plants, by preset times and amounts (also called "Just in Time production". Of course Sony had ordered enough memory chips for this fiscal year (probably around 2023 or 2024).

Now memory contracts (or any chip contracts) are very complex structures. They almost invariably contain options for the manufacturer to raise agreed-upon prices at certain preset dates for whatever technical reasons there might be. Of course, whether the manufacturer has drawn the option(s) only Sony knows. "The AI people want our memory more than you" is NOT a legal reason to draw an option (and would likely result in massive fines). 

What this all means for memory prices paid by Sony for this fy consoles is anyone's guess. My guess is not much for this year but maybe real problems for 2027 onwards. Also XBox has cratered so much that they actually might have surplus memory chips due to much lower production numbers than planed.