While there have been many questions about whether the ongoing global memory shortages and skyrocketing RAM prices will result in Microsoft and Sony pushing back the release of their next-generation consoles, Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick doesn’t believe that this will be the case. In an interview with The Game Business, Zelnick spoke about the memory crisis. However, he ultimately noted that “We don’t see it affecting the delivery of consoles to the market.”
Rumors have indicated that Sony and Microsoft had previously been aiming for a 2027 launch window for their respective consoles. However, the memory shortage struck, which led to new reports coming out about how the two companies might push their release plans back. One such report, from back in January, came from Insider Gaming’s Tom Henderson, who noted that there were “ongoing talks at the high levels” in both companies about the launch windows.
Industry analysts have also chimed in with similar thoughts. MST Financial’s senior research analyst David Gibson stated his belief earlier this year that Sony might end up extending the lifecycle of the PS5, and that the PS6 could be “delayed longer than many expected.” Both of these reports cited the lack of stability in RAM prices as being the major factor at play.
A more recent report, courtesy of industry insider KeplerL2, indicated that both Sony and Microsoft are hanging on to their originally-planned Holiday 2027 launch windows. The statement fell in line with a similar claim made by YouTuber Moore’s Law is Dead, who spoke about logistical issues playing a key role in Sony sticking to its plans. While both companies have likely been facing issues thanks to memory shortages, a delay to late 2028 or even 2029 is considered unlikely since it would end up costing the company more money to disrupt its plans than it would to simply launch the console and eat any inflated costs.
The YouTuber also cited sources believing that the memory situation will get “significantly better” by the end of 2026, and “a lot better” by the end of 2027. Ultimately, the decision on when to launch the PS6 will likely be made “right before they start manufacturing at TSCM” at the start of 2027.
Both the PS6 and Microsoft’s Project Helix are rumored to run on cutting-edge chips designed by AMD, with the former’s APU being codenamed Orion and the latter’s being Magnus. Project Helix is believed to be more powerful than the PS6 thanks in no small part to its larger die size and higher number of compute units. However, while the difference might be more pronounced on paper, actual real-world performance is expected to be “basically not that meaningful.”
Project Helix is rumored to have 26 percent more compute units than the PS6, giving it a significant edge on paper. For comparison, the Xbox Series X also has more compute units than the PS5 by around 44 percent. Despite this, however, we saw little difference in gameplay performance from either of the consoles during their lifetimes.
