RAMageddon Is Hammering Retro Handheld Makers Like Evercade - Kotaku

What the report says

Kotaku reports that Blaze Entertainment, the company behind the Evercade line of retro gaming handhelds and cartridge-based game collections, is stockpiling key parts well ahead of schedule as rising memory costs disrupt its business. Evercade devices, which use flash-based cartridges for classic games, typically sell for about $70 to $200, while cartridges are priced around $30, according to Kotaku’s article published July 20, 2026.

The report cites Blaze CEO Andrew Byatt’s recent comments to FRVR, where he said the company used available cash to buy as many cartridge chips, RAM, processors and other components as possible. Byatt said Blaze has already secured much of what it expects to need for cartridges in 2027, because cartridges are central to Evercade’s model, while hardware purchases may be timed closer to production needs.

Kotaku says the problem extends beyond cartridge memory. Evercade cartridges range from 128MB to 1GB, and Blaze tries to keep game cartridge prices consistent, but Byatt said smaller-capacity chips have become far more expensive than they used to be. The article frames the pressure as part of “RAMageddon,” a broader spike in memory demand and pricing tied in part to AI companies expanding data-center capacity and competing for components.

The development matters because Evercade serves a niche market built around affordable physical media, and component volatility can threaten pricing, planning and product availability for smaller hardware makers. Kotaku notes that Blaze launched during the pandemic-era supply chain crunch, but Byatt described the current conditions as more severe than the disruptions the company previously faced.