The Ayaneo Next 2 was announced earlier this year as a premium Windows PC gaming handheld with almost no compromises. It could play top-end games at high-end specs while also fitting in your backpack. As a result it was going to cost $2,000. But with skyrocketing component costs amid the AI hyperscaling race, even that price tag was apparently not going to be high enough.
“At present, the total cost of the product has far exceeded our selling price, even approaching twice the price we originally set,” the hardware maker announced on its IndieGoGo page on March 23. “Under such circumstances, continuing to sell this product is no longer sustainable.”
The Ayaneo Next 2, which sported an AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 processor and started at 32GB of RAM with a 1TB hard drive, was announced after prices had already started spiking upwards due to suppliers pivoting to demand for AI data center expansion. But the company said in the cancellation update that it thought prices had already largely peaked to their new normal by mid-February when the device was first revealed.
“Even if it meant making little to no profit—or even a slight loss—we still decided to move forward with the launch,” Ayaneo wrote this week. “However, what we did not expect was that storage prices would not only continue to rise but would increase even more rapidly.”
While a $4,000 Windows PC gaming handheld wouldn’t be good for anyone, neither would constantly adjusting the selling price every time suppliers jacked their own rates. “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,” Ayaneo concluded.
The cancelation is the latest data point showing that no gaming hardware, at the low-end or high-end, is safe from the PC component crunch. Valve has yet to confirm the price of its new Steam Machine console, and Sony and Microsoft’s next-gen plans could also both be in jeopardy if the problem continues to spiral out of control.
