Sony’s recent financial results caused a bit of a stir, and not because shipments are down year-on-year. Instead, it was because the company confirmed it was incorporating an “increase in investments for the next-generation platform.” Naturally, there were questions, including from a journalist who asked if the price would be affected by the ongoing memory shortages.
Sony president and CEO Hiroki Totoki said in a recently-concluded webcast (via translator) that manufacturing cost and the Bill of Materials would increase. It’s acquired the materials for the rest of the calendar year, but despite agreeing “to a certain extent” on how much the next PlayStation would cost, an official consensus has yet to be announced. It’s also unclear about a release date at this juncture.
“We have not yet decided on what timing we will launch the new console, or at what prices. So we would like to really observe and follow the situation. Looking at the current circumstances, the memory price is also expected to be very high in fiscal year 2027, because there will still be a shortage of supply. So under that assumption, we must think carefully about what we will do.”
Totoki also noted that the company “would like to think about various simulations, including changing business models to come up with the best solution and strategy.”
Of course, we’ve heard rumors for months now that the alleged PlayStation 6 and its handheld lite version would launch in Holiday 2027. That’s apparently still the case and seemingly coincides with Microsoft’s own next-gen console, Project Helix.
The PS6 allegedly features an AMD Orion chip with eight Zen 6c cores (alongside two lower-power Zen 6 cores) and a GPU with 54 RDNA 5 compute units. Leaks estimated the Bill of Materials at $760, and while a $699 price tag is possible with a subsidy, Sony may be unwilling to go this route. Head here to learn the reasons why (hint: It’s about not viewing Microsoft as competition).
