The PlayStation 5 is slowly approaching 100 million units shipped, but even as sales slow, progress on the next generation continues. Following its latest financial results, CFO Lin Tao confirmed in a web call that the next platform, the PlayStation 6, is “proceeding as scheduled.”
“Although new PS5 unit sales are gradually declining as expected at this stage of the console life cycle, the PlayStation platform continues to expand and grow in a stable manner.” While memory prices have been a stickler for the company, Tao confirmed enough components for the next fiscal year starting April 2027, during which the PS6 would make “solid progress.”
“Looking ahead to the next fiscal year, we aim to continue to enhance user engagement and further strengthen monetization through the release of strong titles and the expansion of our service. We also intend to make solid progress in preparing for the next-generation platform.
“From next fiscal year onward, there will be investment in the new platform. For future growth, we have to attach great importance to a new platform and make the necessary investments for that. We have to support the soundness of our platform and think about how rationally we can invest in that platform. We will announce that at an appropriate time in the future.”
While this sounds all well and good, you have to wonder how this will affect the console’s pricing. Reports claim that the RAM and NAND alone cost more than $680. Factoring in other components, it could very well cross the dreaded $1,000 threshold, which seems to be the same direction as Project Helix’s console.
The PS6 could end up cheaper, at least according to its rumored bill of materials being $200 cheaper than Helix’s, but the next generation of gaming could still be the most expensive yet. Sony’s strategy to stop manufacturing new physical discs from January 2028 also hasn’t proven popular. Then again, despite heavy backlash, there seemingly hasn’t been any notable sales impact.
It’s still unknown whether the next PlayStation will even feature a disc drive, much less a way to convert existing PS5 discs to a digital format (à la Xbox’s new method), but stay tuned for updates.
