PS6 rumors: Everything we know so far about Sony's next-gen console

Update: September 16, 2024 (5:08PM ET): We have updated our PlayStation 6 rumor hub with information regarding the maker of the console’s chip.

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.

Will there be a PS6?

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.

What is the expected PS6 release date?

• 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.

What rumored specs and features could the PS6 have?

With the launch likely being years away, it’s a little early to start talking about specs and features. But we’ll 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.

In September, Reuters released a report explaining how Intel lost out on being PlayStation’s partner for the PS6’s processor. The report in question reveals that AMD will once again create the chip for Sony’s next console. As a result, it looks like we are indeed in store for an upgraded version of the PS5’s AMD chip.

In regards to the GPU, the PS5 Pro could help shed some light on what we could see in the future. In a video presentation, it was revealed that the PS5 Pro received an upgraded GPU with 67% more compute units and 28% faster memory than the base PS5. This reportedly allows for games to be rendered 45% faster than before. It’s likely that the GPU for the PS6 will take this improvement even further, but by how much is anyone’s guess.

News about the PS6 is just starting to trickle out. So we’ll have to wait a little longer to find out more information.

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, backward compatibility, 3D audio (Sony Tempest and/or Dolby Atmos), and cloud streaming.

Thanks to the Reuters report mentioned earlier, we know backward compatibility will be a thing on the PS6. In fact, it was one of the major deciding factors behind PlayStation choosing AMD over Intel for the PS6’s chip. If PlayStation had chosen Intel, it would’ve been expensive for PlayStation to figure out a solution to ensure backward compatibility since AMD made the chip for the PS5.

When developing the mid-gen refresh of the PS5, PlayStation console architect Mark Cerny said they focused on achieving higher fidelity visuals and smoother frame rates. One way they did this was by improving its ray tracing technology. The advanced ray tracing in the PS5 Pro is said to provide more dynamic reflection and refraction of light, capable of casting rays “at double, and at times triple, the speeds of the current PS5 console.” We fully expect this ray-tracing technology to be added to the PS6 either as is or slightly refined.

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. In fact, the second way PS5 Pro achieves better visuals and higher frame rates is through its support of PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR), Sony’s new proprietary AI-driven upscaling technology. It’s highly likely this visual-improving feature will find its way into the PS6.

A less certain AI feature could be 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 affect the way we play. For example, NVIDIA showed off a demo in early 2023 of a conversational AI-powered NPC. Additionally, Xbox partnered with AI NPC creator Inworld in 2023, and it wouldn’t be unthinkable for Sony to consider doing the same.

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.

Of course, Sony has walked back 8K game support promises in recent times and no longer displays this as a taking point on the PS5 box. The PS6 is still a few years away and it’s possible 8K gaming might actually be more viable by then. Now that the PS5 Pro has been announced, PlayStation is back to talking about 8K resolution with Gran Turismo 7 having an 8K Pro mode. It wouldn’t be surprising to see the PS6 with 8K capabilities and PlayStation boasting the console’s 8K prowess by announcing more games with 8K resolution options. Unfortunately, none of this means a whole lot if you don’t have an 8K TV.

Two other PS5 Pro features that are important to note are Game Boost and Enhanced Image Quality. Game Boost is capable of enhancing or stabilizing the performance of supported PS4 and PS5 games. Meanwhile, Enhanced Image Quality improves the resolution of PS4 games. We could see these features also being added to the PS6 to help older games look and run better.

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.

What might the PS6 price be?

• 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.

Should you wait for the PS6?

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 ($489 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).