There will be enough PS5 consoles to meet demand for the rest of 2026 according to Sony, as GTA 6 is set to boost sales.
While some analysts believe the launch of GTA 6 on November 19 will not lead to a spike in PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S console sales, basic logic suggests it will – and Sony agrees.
In Sony’s earnings report for Q1 2026, the company noted that, despite the current RAM shortage, it had the necessary memory components to meet projected sales for the current financial year, which ends after March 2027.
A note in the presentation reads: ‘Regarding the impact of memory market conditions on PlayStation 5 hardware, we have secured the quantity of memory necessary to meet our projected sales volume for FY26, and there is no change to our plan for hardware profitability for FY26 to remain similar to FY25.’
Sony doesn’t give projections on how many PlayStation 5 consoles it expects to sell this year, but it has adjusted its revenue outlook for the gaming division upwards by 3% and its operating income by 10%, so it’s clearly confident.
In the 2025 financial year, Sony sold 16 million PlayStation 5 consoles in total. While console sales typically decline over the course of its lifespan, Sony is expecting that GTA 6 will propel a last minute surge, especially as Xbox hardware is now a much less attractive proposition than at the start of the generation.
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Pushing GTA 6 aside, the rest of the gaming line-up for 2026 is pretty stacked, between Marvel’s Wolverine, Control Resonant, Onimusha: Way Of The Sword, Silent Hill: Townfall, Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse, and lest we forget Star Wars: Galactic Racer.
This comment suggests there will be plenty of PlayStation 5 units to go around when Rockstar’s epic does launch, but it’s unclear if Sony could bump up the console’s price again before that point to maximise profits.
Sony increased the console’s price by £90 in March this year, with the cheapest option, the digital edition, now a whopping £519.99. The standard PlayStation 5 Slim, with a disc drive, costs £569.99.
When combined with the price of GTA 6 (£69.99 for the standard edition, or £89.99 for the Ultimate Edition) and it suddenly becomes a very expensive Christmas gift. There’s a good chance Sony will release a special GTA 6 bundle, but it likely won’t come with a notable discount – if any at all.
While the memory crisis might not impact PlayStation stock in the short term, it will likely have a big impact on Sony’s launch plans for the PlayStation 6, which is expected to come out in 2027 or 2028.
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