What is time? It feels like PlayStation 5 was released yesterday, but it’s actually almost six years old. This is usually when we can expect to start hearing more about a console’s successor. Seven years is a typical console generation lifespan; no PlayStation has ever been released more than seven years after its predecessor, and the eight-year gaps between Switch and Switch 2, or Xbox 360 and Xbox One, are the longest ever for a home console. (Both pale next to the Game Boy’s incredible 12-year run, though.)
If it doesn’t feel like it’s time to start thinking about the PlayStation 6 yet, it’s because lengthening game development times have slowed the pace of new releases for PS5, because initial take-up of the console was slowed by supply issues, and because the COVID-19 pandemic distorted everyone’s sense of time. But the time is upon us all the same.
As it happens, there are reasons why the PS5 could keep going for a few years yet. But regardless, Sony is surely already planning for the next PlayStation, and considering how it’s going to extend PS5’s dominance of the dedicated home console market and crushing defeat of Xbox into the next generation. Here’s what we know so far.
What is the latest PS6 news?
Reports suggest that the PS6 is headed for a very high price point, albeit not quite as high as the next Xbox. Trusted tech leaker Kepler_L2 says that the RAM and NAND memory alone for the PS6 currently costs over $680, a result of the mass shortage in computer memory during the current AI data center boom. That would likely put the price of the PS6 at around $1,000. Read our full report.
PS6 won’t, however, cost quite as much as the next Xbox. Kepler_L2 says that the cost of all the components for the PS6 (known as the bill of materials, or “BOM”) is “approximately $200 lower” than for the next Xbox console, codenamed Project Helix. Reports say that Microsoft projects Helix’s price will land between $1,200 and $1,800. Again, this supports a $1,000-plus price tag for Sony’s next console, perhaps at the lower end of that range.
What is PS6’s release date? When is it coming out?
We don’t know, and we’re probably a long way from knowing. Until recently, it seemed that a November 2027 release for the PlayStation 6 was on the cards, if not actually the plan, following the pattern established by the PS3, PS4, and PS5.
But the RAM crisis has changed that. Sony has been open that it has not set a release date for PS6, and that memory shortages are the reason. Reportedly, Sony is now looking at 2028 or even 2029 as a possible release date for the new console.
Why might PS6 be delayed?
As well as the current difficulty of securing enough chips and setting a reasonable price point, there are other reasons Sony might choose to wait before releasing the PS6.
The PS5 has sold well, on par with the PS4, but it has done so in what appears to be a shrinking overall market for dedicated home consoles. The adoption rate for the current generation has been slow, with the biggest games like Fortnite, Roblox, and Minecraft still very playable on older hardware. Lengthening game development cycles (also impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic) mean that current hardware feels underexploited; GTA 6, bound to be the PS5’s defining game, hasn’t been released yet. Meanwhile, diminishing returns from technological advances are clashing with the ballooning cost of developing games for current specs.
All of these are reasons why consumer demand for another generation of PlayStation is probably on the low side — and why, as Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier put it, a 2027 release for PS6 would be “a disaster for everyone involved.”
What will PS6’s price be?
At the moment, it’s looking as though PlayStation 6 will cost at least $1,000. Reports have put the cost of the new console’s memory alone at more than $680. It is estimated to be cheaper to make than the next Xbox by around $200 — but the next Xbox will reportedly cost between $1,200 and $1,800, according to Microsoft’s own projections.
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