Sony says it hasn’t decided on the price and launch date of the PS6 yet, as the company considers changing business models to counter rising memory costs.
As the global memory shortage continues to spark price hikes, including the Nintendo Switch 2, the big question is how it will affect Sony and Microsoft’s plans for the next generation of consoles.
Based on the typical seven year lifecycle of past consoles, there’s been an assumption that the PlayStation 6 and the new Xbox, codenamed Project Helix, will launch in 2027. However, with the slow audience transition from the PlayStation 4, along with the rising costs of RAM, some analysts have predicted they could be pushed back into 2028 or beyond.
In a Q&A session following Sony’s latest financial results, the company’s president and CEO, Hiroki Totoki, addressed these concerns, admitting that it hadn’t yet decided when the PlayStation 6 will launch or how much it will cost.
During the Q&A (via VGC) Totoki was asked for an update on how the increased cost of components, such as RAM, has affected the price of the PlayStation 5, and how much it will impact the PlayStation 6.
In response, Totoki explained the cost of the bill of materials and manufacturing would increase as a result of the memory shortage, which could potentially have a major impact on consoles at large. However, he stated for the rest of the 2026 calendar year, Sony has acquired enough materials, suggesting the PlayStation 5’s price will go unchanged in the short term.
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As for the PlayStation 6, Totoki said a decision has not been made on when it will launch or how much it will cost, in light of the fluctuating memory prices.
‘We have not yet decided on at what timing we will launch the new console, or at what prices,’ Totoki said, via Sony’s translator. ‘So we would like to really observe and follow the situation.
‘Looking at the current circumstances, the memory price is also expected to be very high financial year 2027, because there will still be a shortage of supply. So under that assumption, we must think carefully what we will do.’
Additionally, along with finding other ways of reducing costs to hardware, Totoki said Sony is looking at new potential ways to sell the PlayStation 6 – which might point to the long rumoured existence of a new Sony handheld.
‘We would like to think about various simulations, including changing business models to come up with the best solution and strategy,’ he added.
All of this suggests the PlayStation 6 could launch sometime after 2027, especially as the launch of a new console takes a lot of preparation. A potential delay, however, could also cost Sony as sales of PlayStation 5 hardware start to slow down.
In its latest financial results, Sony announced the PlayStation 5 has surpassed 93.7 million sales worldwide. However, 1.5 million were sold in the last quarter ending March 31, 2026, which is down by 0.9 million from the same period last year.
While hardware sales are falling (as is to be expected at this point in the console’s lifecycle), PlayStation’s operating income is up 12% year-on-year thanks to sales from network services and the positive impact of foreign exchange rates.
Sony is projecting a 6% decrease in hardware sales over the next financial year, but it’s expecting a 30% boost in operating income. As cited in Sony’s results, this boost is due to them not having to take into account a 120.1 billion yen (£562,908) ‘impairment loss’ against Bungie recorded in the 2025 financial year.
An impairment loss refers to a company’s value, so it isn’t referring to specific losses from the studio’s output. However, it’s clear Sony is regretting buying Bungie for a massive $3.6 billion (£2.7 billion) in 2022.
Overall though, these upward income projections might convince Sony to delay the PlayStation 6 beyond 2027, despite the drop in hardware sales.
What Xbox will do, with Project Helix, is much harder to guess though, as unlike Sony they are in desperate needs of releasing new hardware, since sales of the Xbox Series X/S have already plummeted.
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