The AYN Thor and AYN Odin 3, two popular handheld gaming devices loved by fans of retro games and indie titles, are getting price increases later this month. For the AYN Thor, this is the second price increase in less than three months. It’s yet one more sign of how bad things are getting out there for tech due to ongoing memory shortages.
On June 8, as spotted by Wario64, an AYN representative announced in the brand’s Discord server that the next wave of pre-orders for the AYN Thor and Odin 3 were available today. But the rep also shared some bad news: Another price increase was coming soon.
“We also wanted to give everyone an early heads-up that we’re planning a price increase for both Thor and Odin 3 later this month,” said AYN’s Nicole. “The new pricing will take effect once the current inventory allocation is sold through, so if you’ve been thinking about picking one up, now would be a great time to place your order.”
We don’t know the actual price increase just yet, but if we look at the past, we might get a clue.
Back in April, AYN increased the price of the 1TB AYN Thor dual-screen handheld gaming device by $100, bumping it from $450 to $550. I’d expect at least a similar bump of around $100 or more later this month as companies continue to struggle to secure the RAM and other parts needed to build new gaming devices due to shortages caused by AI hyperscalers buying up inventory. We recently saw Valve increase the price of the Steam Deck, another popular handheld gaming device, by over $200.
Things are going to get worse out there, folks. If there’s a gaming device you want and the price seems reasonable, buy it now before it gets a big price increase in a few weeks or months.