With recent rumors indicating that the current state of memory shortages might lead Sony to push back its planned 2027 launch of the PS6, hardware industry insider and known leaker KeplerL2 disagrees. In NeoGAF thread, the leaker responded to such questions about potential delays into 2028 or beyond by posting a “Nope” gif featuring Danny DeVito’s character, Frank Reynolds, from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
While KeplerL2 didn’t reveal any further details about why they disagreed with the idea of a delay, they “liked” another post by forum user Bojji, who noted that Sony would have a lot more to lose through such a delay than it would gain. Bojji pointed out that the company has already penned deals with chip maker TSMC to fabricate the hardware powering the PS6. Along with this, Sony also likely doesn’t have any assurances of memory getting cheaper in the future.
“Delaying the console when it’s basically done doesn’t make any sense; they have TSMC contracts for production of APUs, maybe even GDDR7 contracts with memory makers, R&D done that cost them a few hundred millions,” wrote Bojji. “PS5 sales are slowing down, and there is NO guarantee that memory prices will drop between now and 2030.”
“Releasing it in 2027 – several million units sold before 2030, when memory price drops you just lower price of the console and gain massive market share (on top of what you already sold). Releasing it in 2030 – no sales… in 2030 memory prices could be lower, the same, or higher. You start from scratch.”
KeplerL2 had previously discussed the idea of a potential delay beyond 2027 not happening, noting that AMD had already started testing and validating the chips it was making for the PS6. “You think AMD is going to waste resources doing validation on something they think will get delayed?”
The discussion eventually led to the subject of how Sony had already dealt with launching new console hardware during challenging times for the industry with the launch of the PS5. The console was released into the market during the COVID-19 pandemic. While the gaming industry saw incredible growth at the time since people were stuck at home due to lockdowns, hardware saw plenty of issues, with supply chains all over the world being in danger of falling apart.
In the meantime, recent analysis of the rumored hardware powering the PS6 and Microsoft’s Project Helix have indicated that, rather than fighting over image quality, both next-gen consoles will instead try to battle it out over which has the better frame rates. The analysis noted that while Project Helix will have more powerful hardware, it won’t be much more powerful than what we get in the PS6. “And so, for me, that sounds like one of them is meant for 4K 144 [FPS], and one of them is made for 4K 60,” said Moore’s Law is Dead earlier this month.
For more on what we can expect from Sony and Microsoft from their next-generation consoles, take a look at the reported performance differences.