In a recent quote, Sony Senior Vice President Naomi Matsuoka said: “Looking ahead, PS5 will enter the latter stage of its life cycle.” Many in the industry took that to mean that we may be hearing about the next PlayStation console sooner rather than later.
Considering Sony has yet to break its naming convention, it feels safe to assume whatever future home console we get will be called the PlayStation 6. But not only has the name not been officially confirmed, but neither has the idea of a next-generation PlayStation console or even a PS5 Pro. It’s almost a guarantee, but technically nothing is set in stone. Rumors and potential leaks have already started stirring up excitement, so let’s see what the future of PlayStation may look like according to the rumors.
Release date speculation
The biggest clue as to when a PS6 could come out, or at least may have been planned to at one point, points to 2027. This information comes from an official Microsoft court document as part of the Activision Blizzard acquisition: “By the time SIE launched the next generation of its PlayStation console (which is likely to occur around [redacted]), it would have lost access to Call of Duty.” The date is redacted here, but sleuths have connected the dots between this and the deal Microsoft offered Sony to keep Activision Blizzard games on PlayStation consoles until 2027. That would suggest that, at the earliest, Microsoft didn’t believe a new PlayStation would come before 2027.
If we look at past generations, that time frame falls in line with the life spans of past generations. The PlayStation 4 had seven years before the PS5 came out, and the PlayStation 3 was also around for seven years before its successor showed up. The PS5 launched in 2020, meaning 2027 would once again leave us with a seven-year console cycle. We wouldn’t put money on 2027 for sure, but anything from late 2027 onward feels like a safe bet.
Price
The price of a PS6 is impossible to even estimate with any degree of certainty. Until we know any firm details about what the specs inside of it are, we can’t even start to run rough numbers to figure out what it costs. However, based on past pricing and rumored specs, it would be hard to imagine it costing less than $500 at launch, if not closer to the dreaded $600 mark.
Specs
Exact specifications for the PS6 are a bit scarce. Moore’s Law is Dead has stated that it knows “with 100% certainty that Sony will continue its partnership with AMD to power the PS6 and PS5 Pro.” This would make sense as this is the same chipset used in the PS5, so sticking with it would make things like backward compatibility and cross-generational games much easier. The next generation of AMD chips is planned to be released in 2025, so that could be what the PS6 is built with.
We suspect a new SSD will be included as that was a major push in the PS5 to nearly cut out loading times, but no word has been leaked on that.
By the time a PS6 comes out, we would also expect at least 1TB of storage, especially if the console ends up being digital-only.
Features
Insider Gaming claims to have a document regarding one very unique feature that is being worked on for the PS6 called PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR). This technology reportedly will allow games to run at either 4K at 120 frames per second (fps) or 8K at 60 fps, according to Insider Gaming. A weaker version of PSSR is supposedly being implemented into the PS5 Pro, but will be fully utilized in the PS6.
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