As part of these expansion plans, Foxconn subsidiary Fushan Technology is trying to get a permit to boost its production capabilities. Interestingly, this production will revolve almost entirely around Xbox gaming devices, and the company is aiming to make an additional 4.8 million of them on a yearly basis. The manufacturing plans also involve console parts and unspecified electromagnetic devices.

Similarly, Luxshare-ICT is also looking to boost its production of gaming consoles by up to 4.5 million units a year through a factory in Vietnam. The company’s plans are slated to start next year, according to the report.

It is worth noting that, alongside boosting the manufacturing capabilities for consoles, these companies are also keeping an eye on outputting even more hardware when it comes to mobile phones and smart wearables. These efforts have led to upgrades to a factory, according to Fushan.

Interestingly, the fact that the production boost seemingly applies to Xbox gaming devices rather than strictly consoles indicates that we might also see a manufacturing boost for the ROG Xbox Ally and Xbox Ally X handheld gaming PCs. This boost in production comes in the shadow of a shortage of DRAM in the tech industry, however.

This shortage of memory modules has already been contributing to prices for RAM shooting up all over the world. Recent rumours have indicated that the shortage will also likely end up affecting costs of consoles – namely the Xbox Series X/S, the price tag of which is expected to go all the way up to $649.99.

The memory shortage has been attributed to tech company OpenAI having recently announced that it had secured around 900,000 DRAM wafers on a monthly basis thanks to its deals with Samsung and SK Hynix. The report noted that, while companies have since been scrambling to get their hands on as many memory modules as they can so as to not affect their own production, Microsoft has not made preparations for this possibility.

“They didn’t plan ahead at all, apparently,” said YouTube channel Moore’s Law is Dead. “If you still want an Xbox for some reason at their current pricing, those prices could go up soon, or supply could entirely dry up because multiple sources of mine have apparently been warned by sales reps at Microsoft that this is going to affect the Xbox Series consoles very, very soon. Sooner rather than later.”

The report also indicates that Sony has seemingly protected itself from running out of memory for the time being thanks to the company having already purchased quite a bit of RAM when the prices hadn’t yet shot up. The company expected to be fine for a few months thanks to its reserves of GDDR6 memory modules.

Several recent listings on ebay for various bits and pieces of hardware relating to the PlayStation 4 have cause rumors to surface that Foxconn, the company in charge of manufacturing China’s supply of PlayStation 4’s may be the culprit. The parts in question were thumbsticks that can be used with the PlayStation 4’s Dualshock 4 controller, and according to reports, are being shipped from Shenzhen, China, which happens to be where Foxconn’s largest factory is.

The listings on ebay report that the parts should be shipped from Hong Kong, but a user on reddit.com who actually ordered the parts reported that the package was actually delivered from Shenzhen.

Foxconn has a history of poor working conditions and controversy surrounding their manufacturing process. If some of their employees were to be selling excess PS4 parts it wouldn’t come as a surprise to many. Stay tuned to Gaminbolt for developments on this story.

Via: Nowgamer.

Games In Asia is reporting that Chinese manufacturer Foxconn has been using forced student labor to produce Sony’s next generation console, the PlayStation 4.

Under the guise of internship, students were being forced to do jobs on the manufacturing site. The report claims that, “Students have been told if they refuse to participate, they lose six course credits, which effectively means they will not be able to graduate” and that “students say that their working hours are exactly the same as regular workers – the only difference is that unlike the workers, the students aren’t being paid”.

The Chinese manufacturer has acknowledge these claims in a statement given to Quartz.

“Immediate actions have been taken to bring that campus into full compliance with our code and policies by reinforcing the policies of no overtime and no night shifts for student interns, even though such work is voluntary, and reminding all interns of their rights to terminate their participation in the program at any time,” reads the statement.

Those 1000 odd students are pursuing their engineering studies from Xi’an Institute of Technology. What are your thoughts about this incident? Let us know in the comments section below.

Which leads to better financial earnings for all involved. But the increase by Q3 2013 is interesting, and points to the Xbox 720 releasing around the same time as

Some of the suppliers reportedly involved include Lite-On IT, Asia Optical and Newmax. While Lite-On is working on the optical drive, the latter are developing lenses (most likely for Kinect). Jentech Precision will handle the cooling system.

Reports also indicate that the next Xbox will be manufactured in China at Foxconn, which has come under controversy due to the number of worker suicides, employee rights violations and pathetic working conditions. More details to follow as the next Xbox is revealed tonight.

Speaking to IGN on the matter, Nintendo released a statement saying, “We take our responsibilities as a global company very seriously and are committed to an ethical policy on sourcing, manufacture and labor. In order to ensure the continued fulfillment of our social responsibility throughout our supply chain, we established the Nintendo CSR Procurement Guidelines in July 2008.

“We require that all production partners, including Foxconn, comply with these Guidelines, which are based on relevant laws, international standards and guidelines. If we were to find that any of our production partners did not meet our guidelines, we would require them to modify their practices according to Nintendo’s policy.”

Foxconn has stated that there are no instances of children being employed in other facilities.