Polymega raises hardware prices as AI eats the memory supply
Playmaji is raising prices across the Polymega range on 5 October: the Base Unit goes to $599 and the Remix to $229, with pre-orders reopened at today's prices.
Polymega hardware is about to get more expensive. Playmaji has announced that from Monday 5 October it is raising prices across nearly the whole range, with the Base Unit moving to $599, the Remix to $229, Element Module Sets to $99 and RC-Series controllers to $35.
What is changing on 5 October
Everything else in the catalogue keeps its current price, and Playmaji has reopened pre-orders for most products with holiday 2026 shipping. Critically, the company says every order placed before 5 October will be honoured at current prices, so anyone who has been circling a Base Unit or a Remix has a fortnight to buy at the old numbers. The listed figures are US dollars; the notice does not state what happens to UK or European pricing.
Why the price is going up
Playmaji's explanation is blunt and worth reading in its own words: "Component prices for hardware have risen sharply, driven in large part by the surge in data center investment for AI, which is competing for the same chips, memory, and other parts that go into consumer electronics." The company adds that fuel costs are pushing up manufacturing and shipping, and that it can no longer absorb the increases as it has done in previous years.
The retro shelf is not separate from the AI boom
This is the memory squeeze arriving somewhere nobody expected it. Retro console owners are not buying HBM or training clusters, but they are buying machines full of the same commodity memory, storage and controllers that AI infrastructure has been hoovering up for two years. When data-centre demand distorts component pricing, it eventually lands on every shelf, including the one full of 1990s cartridges.
Our opinion
Polymega was never a cheap way to play old games, and $599 for the Base Unit cements that: this is a premium machine for people who want one box under the telly that handles Mega Drive, Super Nintendo, TurboGrafx and PlayStation discs. The frustration is that the rise arrives with pre-orders reopening rather than as a smaller, quieter adjustment, and that non-US buyers are told nothing at all. Playmaji's reasoning is honest and almost certainly true, but "the AI boom made me do it" will not soften the bill for anyone whose retro budget was already fixed. Buy before 5 October or wait and see whether the component market ever gives any of it back — history suggests the second option is a long wait.