For retro gaming enthusiasts, this week delivers a familiar mix of good news and unwelcome arithmetic. The Analogue Pocket, one of the most sought-after handheld consoles in the collector market, is back in stock for the first time in weeks. The catch: it now costs USD $240, up from the $220 it fetched during its last release window and a full $40 more than its original 2021 launch price of $199, according to Engadget.
Preorders open on March 4 at Analogue's online store, with shipments expected from June 2026. Analogue places the blame squarely on US tariffs applied to goods manufactured in China, where the device is assembled. The company has not absorbed the cost, passing it directly to consumers who have already watched prices creep upward across the broader consumer electronics market.
What makes the Pocket distinctive, and explains why collectors tolerate restocks that sell out within minutes, is its use of Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) technology. Rather than emulating classic Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance titles in software, the device reproduces the original hardware at a circuit level, offering a fidelity that enthusiasts argue is simply not replicable through emulation alone. That proposition has sustained demand through multiple price increases, but there is a reasonable question about how much more the market will bear.
Analogue is not alone in repricing its products. Handheld maker AYN announced late last week that its Thor and Odin 3 devices will also become more expensive, with new prices taking effect on March 8, pulled forward from an originally flagged April date. In a message posted to its Discord channel and reported by Retro Handhelds, AYN cited a supplier-confirmed rise in DRAM and storage costs beginning with February orders, and warned that "memory pricing pressure is expected to continue for approximately the next year."
The increases vary by model tier. For the Thor line, the Base model rises by $10 to $319, the Pro by $30 to $399, and the Max by $40 to $489. The Thor Lite, which uses an older Snapdragon 865 chipset and carries less memory, holds steady at $249. The Odin 3 sees comparable adjustments, with the Base rising $10 to $339 and the Pro and Max each climbing $40 to $439 and $489 respectively, as reported by Steam Deck HQ. AYN has confirmed that any orders placed before the March 8 deadline will be honoured at original pricing.
The memory cost surge is not AYN-specific. Industry analysts have pointed to sustained demand from AI infrastructure as a key driver of DRAM and NAND flash price increases across the semiconductor supply chain, with effects rippling into consumer hardware from laptops to gaming handhelds. AYN acknowledged as much in its statement, describing the situation as a broader "AI-fuelled memory crisis" compounded by exchange rate volatility.
From a consumer standpoint, the frustration is legitimate. Enthusiast handhelds occupy a niche that already demands a premium, and buyers who delayed purchases hoping for stable pricing are finding that window has closed. At the same time, the cost pressures facing manufacturers are real and well-documented: tariff regimes, currency movements, and AI-driven memory demand are not factors any single handheld maker can resolve unilaterally.
Elsewhere in the gaming industry, French publisher Nacon, which publishes titles including Greedfall 2, has postponed its planned March 4 games showcase to May as it attempts to restructure significant debt. In a press release, the company said it was choosing to focus resources on upcoming releases and game development rather than staging a major public event during a period of financial difficulty. It is a candid admission that the economics of mid-tier game publishing remain precarious, even as the broader gaming market continues to grow.
The retro handheld surge of the past few years has been built on nostalgia and a genuine enthusiasm for physical media and hardware-accurate playback. Those foundations remain solid. What is shifting is the cost baseline, and consumers will need to decide whether the premiums now being asked reflect fair market value or whether cheaper alternatives, including software emulation on general-purpose devices, offer a more pragmatic path. Both answers are defensible. The market, as usual, will sort it out.