Everything we know so far about Sony’s next-gen console

Sony launched the PlayStation 5 during the holiday season of 2020. Not only was the PS5 more powerful than the PS4, but it also offered a variety of features not available in the prior generation, like a high-speed SSD, hardware-accelerated ray tracing, 3D audio support, and more. Not to mention, the new DualSense was the biggest departure in PlayStation’s history regarding controller design.

Now that we’re in the latter half of the PS5’s lifecycle, it’s about time to start thinking about what Sony has in store for us next. What innovations could Sony bring to its sixth-generation console? There are already leaks and rumors spreading about, and in this PS6 rumor hub, we’ll tell you all about them. Here’s everything we know about the PlayStation 6 so far.

Until we reach a future where games can be streamed without reliability questions, latency problems, and so on, the need for new consoles will always be there. Although Sony hasn’t acknowledged the existence of a sixth-generation PlayStation, the company is undoubtedly working on its development. We won’t likely hear about the PS6 until we’re at least a year away from its release, and we’re probably a few years out from that.

Will there be more than one model?

When the PS5 launched, Sony offered two versions of the system — one with a disc drive and one without. The disc-less Digital Edition sold for $100 less than the disc version to give buyers a cheaper option. At the moment, it’s difficult to tell if Sony will do the same for the release of the PS6. More people than ever are exclusively buying digital copies rather than physical ones. And given that the new version of the PS5 Digital Edition can be fitted with an attachable disc drive, this may give us a hint at Sony’s future strategy.

It’s possible that Sony could opt to make a single all-digital PS6. However, Sony may design the console in a way that allows customers to attach a disc drive, which would be available for sale separately. Of course, this is all speculation, and we’ll get a better idea of what to expect the closer we get to release time.

• PlayStation 3 — November 11, 2006
• PlayStation 4 — November 15, 2013
• PlayStation 5 — November 12, 2020

When it comes to game consoles, it’s usually not too hard to predict launch windows, especially when it comes to the PlayStation. On average, console lifecycles last anywhere between six to 10 years. For Sony, in particular, the company tends to lean closer to six or seven, with seven being the more common choice. Sony also almost always releases its new systems in the month of November to get ahead of holiday shopping. The only times it didn’t was for the original console and the PS2, but they released only a month later in December.

With this knowledge, it’s likely safe to assume the PS6 will be released in November. And there’s a possibility it will come out in 2026 or 2027. Sony’s Executive VP of Hardware Engineering, Masayasu Ito, also confirmed in an interview with Game Informer that the PS5’s lifecycle is expected to be six to seven years. However, the company could choose to extend the PS5’s lifecycle by an extra year, according to Microsoft.

During Microsoft’s court fight to acquire Activision Blizzard, leaked documents (via IGN) tipped that Microsoft expects Sony to release the hardware in late 2027 or 2028. Of course, there’s only so much that Microsoft can know about what decisions are being made within Sony. But because Microsoft predicts a longer PS5 cycle, we’re inclined to believe the most likely release date for the PS6 could be November 2027.

With the launch likely being years away, it’s a little early to start talking about specs and features. But we’ll try to scrape together what little information we have about the PS6 and provide more information as it becomes available.

Design

The PS5 was a drastic change in Sony’s typical design philosophy. It’s anyone’s guess as to what the company’s next console will look like. But a rumor floating around the internet claims that Mark Cerny — lead architect of the PS5 — will be back at the helm.

If we had to venture a guess right now, we would suspect that the PS6 will be smaller than the PS5. When the PS5 launched, it earned the title of the largest game console of all time. The console is so large, in fact, that it spawned memes about how people were unable to fit the system into their entertainment centers. It would be hard to believe that Sony would choose to make the system even bigger than that.

Specs

The PS6 will be more powerful than the PS5; that’s usually the point of new generations. But what will the next-gen console have under the hood that gives it that extra oomph? As with many other sections in this rumor hub, there aren’t enough PS6 leaks or rumors to form a solid guess at the moment. However, it could help to point out what the PS5 is working with.

The PS5 uses a 3.5GHz eight-core AMD Zen 2 for its CPU with a custom AMD RDNA 2-based GPU. There’s also 16GB of GDDR6 RAM with an 825GB custom SSD. Additionally, it has support for 120Hz output for 4K and 8K TVs and variable refresh rate (VRR). You can see a full breakdown in our PS5 specs list.

Sony could choose to upgrade each of these specs or only a few of them. We’ll just have to wait a little longer and see what PS6 leaks come our way.

Features

The PS5 comes equipped with countless features, many of which will probably find their way into the PS6. Sony will most certainly include new features along with those existing features as well. But at this stage, it’s too early to tell what Sony will stuff into its next system. A few possible candidates could include storage expansion, backwards compatibility, 3D audio (Tempest and/or Dolby Atmos), and cloud streaming.

Something else we could end up seeing is more PlayStation Link integration. PlayStation Link is a proprietary wireless audio connectivity standard created by Sony. It’s said to offer lossless low-latency audio, multi-device connections, and other benefits over Bluetooth. Sony adopted the standard — while neglecting Bluetooth — in its PlayStation Portal, Pulse Explore earbuds, and Pulse Elite headset. There’s a good chance Sony wants to incorporate this technology in its next console to have a more connected ecosystem. Unfortunately, this also means bad news for anyone who wants to use their current Bluetooth earbuds or headphones.

Given the current frenzy over AI, it wouldn’t be much of a surprise if Sony was considering incorporating AI into its next system in some sort of way. We could see this come in the form of something like helping players get hints for the games, similar to how Google was planning to use Google Assistant for the now-defunct Stadia. Although it’s controversial, it’s possible we may even see the technology leak into the games we play. For example, NVIDIA showed off a demo in early 2023 of a conversational AI-powered NPC. Xbox also recently partnered with AI NPC creator Inworld this year.

Sony has filed a number of interesting patents, with some of the more notable ones related to potential controller features. The most recent patent described a controller that could double as an earbuds charging case. Another patent imagined a controller that could change temperature and deform. Like with any patent, however, there’s no guarantee Sony will move forward with any of these ideas.

• PlayStation 3 — $499
• PlayStation 4 — $399
• PlayStation 5 disc/digital edition — $499/$399

No official price has been given yet, and we don’t expect that to happen anytime soon. It’s also too early for any leaks or even rumors about the price to be floating around. As such, all we can do at the moment is speculate.

For the last couple of generations, the starting price of PlayStation consoles has been between $399-$499. This is the range both Sony and its closest competitor — Microsoft — tend to target when launching a new console. And ever since the poor reception of the $600 60GB PS3, the company has tried its best to steer away from that price point.

Taking all of this into account, we don’t see Sony moving away from this strategy. So, the price of the PS6 will most likely be no lower than $399 and no higher than $599.

As with any decision involving money, whether you should wait for the PS6 depends on time and your situation. For example, the PS6 is likely years away from release, so if you currently have a PS4 or Xbox One and want to upgrade, it would probably be better for you to just get a PS5 or Xbox Series X|S. On the other hand, if you have a PC or Xbox Series X|S and are fine with waiting, then you might as well wait for a PS6.

At this time, the answer will almost always be no; you shouldn’t wait. But that will change once we get a year or two out from release. As mentioned before, we’re about halfway in the lifecycle right now, so it will be a while until that status quo changes.

If you need an alternative to the PS6, you may want to consider the Xbox Series X ($449 at Amazon). Or you could opt for the OLED Nintendo Switch ($348 at Amazon). Valve also released an OLED version of the Steam Deck that offers a number of improvements over the original ($549 at Manufacturer site).