Ayaneo has suspended pre-orders after just two weeks for the NEXT 2 gaming handheld as “RAMaggedon” continues to wreck havoc on storage prices. In a post on Monday, the company outlined they believed prices for storage had reached its peak, but were shocked after Chinese New Year to find that storage prices had increased to “several times” higher than before the holiday.
As the wrath of AI datacenters and the war in the Middle East cause the price of RAM to continue skyrocketing, hardware manufacturers are all suffering. Just recently, Steam Deck creator Valve announced major stock issues for both its handheld and the upcoming Steam Machine, the latter of which has been indefinitely delayed.
Continuing to sell this product is “no longer sustainable,” the Ayaneo post reads. “Therefore, after careful consideration, we have decided to suspend the pre-orders of NEXT 2.”
The ambitious NEXT 2 boasts a 9.06-inch OLED display, 1Tb of storage, a massive 116Wh battery and has an AMD Ryzen Max /+ (for the more expensive models) 395 processor under the hood. “It represents not only a comprehensive leap in performance, but also a systematic evolution across design language, ergonomics, control systems, and overall user experience,” said Ayaneo earlier in the year. Prices ranged from $1999 for the 32GB /1Tb model to $4299 for 128GB of memory and 2Tb, making it particulary vulnerable to the storage price hikes.
The company confirmed the NEXT 2 has been removed from all sales channels and Indiegogo. “We do not want to constantly adjust the selling price due to fluctuations in component costs,” the post reads. “We believe that continuing to sell NEXT 2 under the current circumstances could potentially harm the interests of consumers and ultimately affect the long-term development of the brand.”
“Under such circumstances, the overall cost of the product has become far higher than our current selling price. Therefore, after careful consideration, we have decided to suspend the pre-orders of NEXT 2.”
Ayaneo
Ayaneo confirmed that Backers who have already pre-ordered the NEXT 2 will not be affected and production will continue “as planned”. They also reiterated that when storage prices return to “reasonable levels” they may consider resuming the sale of NEXT 2. “We would also like to clarify that this does not mean the end of the NEXT 2 product lifecycle,” they said.
“We are only temporarily suspending pre-orders. If storage prices return to more reasonable levels in the future, we may consider resuming the sale of NEXT 2. At this time, we cannot predict when storage prices will decline, but we will continue to closely monitor market changes.”
