“When I see things like AI, ray tracing, PSSR (PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution), keeping costs in control, whatever they’re going to do, they’re going to try to make it feel like 4K 120 [FPS] and cut costs after that,” he said. The podcast also discussed other potential ways Sony could make its next-generation console more enticing to potential buyers, like featuring an entirely new interface that made extensive use of voice recognition through AI models run locally on the system.

They also discussed the potential of more advanced AI-based features that use cloud hardware that could be locked behind various tiers of PlayStation Plus subscriptions.

There have recently been quite a few discussions about whether the recent spike in RAM prices might lead Sony to push back its planned 2027 launch of the PS6 to 2028 or beyond. However, known industry insider and leaker KeplerL2 believes that we will not see such a delay. While not elaborating much on the subject, KeplerL2 instead “liked” a post on NeoGAF about why Sony might go ahead with its 2027 plans.

“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 NeoGAF user 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 also previously noted that a delay in launching the console is unlikely since AMD has reportedly begun testing and validating the chips that it has designed for the PS6. “You think AMD is going to waste resources doing validation on something they think will get delayed?”

If you’re curious about what kind of performance we can expect from the next-generation PlayStation, rumors have indicated that its hardware will be capable of boosting ray traced frame pacing by 10x. This would result in around 3.10 times the frame rate that is currently possible on the same game running on current-generation consoles. Using Assassin’s Creed Shadows as an example, the PS5 can generate a new frame every 5 milliseconds, while a PS6 will be able to do so every 1.35 milliseconds.

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.

In a video analyzing the potential performance of the PS6 and Project Helix based on the hardware specifications that have been leaked so far, Moore’s Law is Dead drew comparisons like Project Helix having 70 compute units, compared to the PS6’s 54. Similarly, there is also some speculation on their respective processors’ clock speeds.

The YouTuber brought up the fact that, in the current console generation, while Xbox Series X has “better compute” than the PS5, Sony’s console was helped by the fact that it has better cooling systems, allowing it to run at higher speeds for longer times before heat becomes an issue. He noted that the difference between the two consoles in terms of horsepower came down to arguing about the Xbox Series X’s 12.1 teraFLOPS versus PS5’s 10.3 teraFLOPS.

“That’s a 30 percent difference. That’s a bigger teraFLOPS difference than last-gen; that’s notable,” said Moore’s Law is Dead when comparing the next-generation consoles. “But we don’t know the clock speeds. Maybe the XBOX Helix runs at 2.5 GHz, and the PS6 runs at 3 GHz. Then it’s pretty much a wash. Maybe it’s the other way around though. Maybe Sony wants to save on cooling, because I know it’s a 160-watt design; maybe Sony’s is 2.5 GHz and Microsoft’s is 3. In that scenario, Microsoft actually has a substantial win in compute.”

After discussing the differences in how the two next-generation consoles will handle memory bandwidth, he went on to note that “All I can tell you without knowing the clock [speeds] is that the bandwidth difference is smaller than last time, and the compute difference is a little larger. Net-on-net, it’s kind of similar to last-gen. 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.”

Ultimately, Moore’s Law is Dead doesn’t believe the hardware differences between the PS6 and Project Helix will matter too much in the long run once games start coming out for them. Depending on the skill of developers and how much they can optimize for the software and hardware of the next-gen systems, it will largely come down to differences in frame rates. He also brought up the fact that consoles are typically used on displays that only go up to 120 Hz, which means that the PS6 wouldn’t lose out on much against Project Helix and its capability of higher frame rates due to having more compute units.

Sony hasn’t yet made any announcements regarding the PS6, and just about everything we might know about it largely comes from rumors. In case you’re interested, here are the biggest rumors you should know about. As for Project Helix, Microsoft has been talking about its next-generation console, noting that its ray tracing capabilities are well beyond what Xbox Series X/S is capable of.

Unlike previous cycles that focused primarily on raw power increases, the PS6 is poised to represent a broader evolution, right from how the specs are laid out to how integrations and mobility work. The rumour mill has been churning out quite a bit of information, so we thought to compile it all in an effort to understand everything that you need to know about the PS5. Of course, since it’s all rumours and speculation, one should take this information with a pinch of salt.

Starting off with the hardware that’s going to drive the machine, the PS6 is widely expected to continue Sony’s long-standing partnership with AMD as reported by Reuters, building on the custom CPU and GPU architecture seen in both the PS4 and PS5 generations. Reports indicate that the system could use a next-generation Zen 6-based CPU alongside a GPU architecture believed to be RDNA 5. A few rumours also indicate that the console could feature Zen 7-based hardware, but that’s quite unlikely since manufacturing starts to get planned many years before the expected release. Either way, the upgrade to Zen 6 looks like a decent one that could perform well, and it would represent a significant leap in both processing efficiency and graphical capability.

In terms of the memory, the PS6 codenamed Orion is also expected to see a major upgrade, with 30 GB of GDDR7 frequently cited as the likely standard. This would dramatically increase bandwidth, allowing the system to handle larger textures, more complex environments, and faster data streaming. Combine that with further improvements to SSD technology and even tighter integrations with RAM- the PS6 could reduce loading times even further while enabling more seamless open-world experiences.

In terms of physical design, early speculation suggests Sony may move away from a single standardised console in terms of performance. Instead, the company could adopt a multi-tier approach, offering different models with varying performance levels or price points. A detachable disc drive is also said to be in the cards as per Insider Gaming. We know that Orion is most likely the base model, but there’s also Helix which is reported to be 25 percent faster than the base model. This is definitely a new way of rolling out systems for Sony since it isn’t used to offering multiple entry points into the same ecosystem at launch. The Japanese gaming giant might be taking a page from Microsoft’s book right now, but a lot of it is unknown at the moment.

One of the most exciting aspects of current PS6 rumors is the potential return of a dedicated PlayStation handheld which has been indicated by multiple reputable sources such as Insider Gaming. Following the mixed legacy of the PlayStation Vita and the more recent streaming-focused PlayStation Portal, Sony seems to be exploring a more powerful and fully featured portable device for the next generation.

Unlike the Portal, which relies on streaming from a PS5, this rumored handheld could run games natively using an AMD-based APU. Some reports suggest that it may share architectural similarities with the PS6 itself, enabling developers to scale their games across both devices more easily. This would mark a significant shift toward a unified ecosystem, where players can seamlessly transition between console and handheld experiences.

Performance expectations for this device are also notably higher than those of previous handhelds. While it may not obviously match the full capabilities of the PS6, it could still deliver visuals comparable to lower-end PS5 settings, particularly when paired with AI upscaling technologies. Features such as haptic feedback, adaptive triggers, and potentially even OLED displays are also rumored, indicating that Sony is aiming to maintain a good level of feature similarity across its hardware lineup.

If accurate, this handheld strategy would position Sony to compete more directly with devices like the Steam Deck and other portable gaming systems, while also strengthening the overall PlayStation ecosystem. In terms of the specs, this handheld – internally dubbed as Canis – will feature a pared-back Zen 6 CPU and RDNA5 graphics along with 24 GB of LPDDR5X RAM as per a report from Insider Gaming.

Perhaps the most important technological shift expected with the PS6 is the expanded role of AI in rendering and performance optimisation. Sony has already introduced its PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR) technology in the PS5 Pro, and future iterations are expected to take this concept much further. AI-driven upscaling could allow games to render at lower internal resolutions while outputting near-native 4K or even higher image quality.

AMD’s RDNA 5 is expected to include significant advancements in dedicated ray tracing hardware, thanks to special Radiance Cores, which can deliver exponentially better ray tracing performance as compared to current-gen. While the console may use a custom AMD graphics approach rather than a full desktop RDNA 5 feature set as per comments from KeplerL2, this dedicated hardware is central to improving visual fidelity by enabling more realistic reflections, shadows, and global illumination. 

All of these features wouldn’t mean much if the games we are playing on the system didn’t benefit from it. So, with the kind of hardware and features being rumoured, the PS6 generation is set to push games in several key directions. First and foremost is obviously scale; so open-world games could become even larger and more detailed, with fewer technical limitations restricting how environments are designed. Improved CPU performance would allow for more complex simulations, from dynamic weather systems to detailed NPC routines and much more.

Visual fidelity will also see a significant boost, particularly in areas like lighting and materials. Advanced ray tracing capabilities could enable more realistic reflections, shadows, and global illumination, bringing games closer to photorealism. Combined with AI upscaling, this would allow developers to achieve high-end visuals without sacrificing performance.

Backward compatibility is another key expectation, and there’s a lot of good news in this department. Sony has emphasised the importance of preserving existing libraries, and the PS6 will likely support both PS4 and PS5 games, as stated by Insider Gaming. Of course, it’s not really that big of a deal since the underlying hardware architecture is quite identical across these generations – but it’s great that this allows developers to transition to more advanced, next-generation experiences gradually.

Pricing for the PS6 remains one of the most uncertain aspects of the console, but several factors provide some context for what to expect. The inclusion of cutting-edge hardware such as advanced CPUs, GPUs, and high-speed memory will inevitably drive up production costs. At the same time, global supply chain challenges and rising component prices could further impact the final retail price.

There are a lot of questions about how the pricing will play out for the PS6. There are ongoing concerns from analysts that the global supply shortage and the high spec sheet will raise the cost to a $1000. Given the recent increase in PS5 and PS5 Pro prices, especially at a time when consumers are expecting price cuts, things don’t really look all that positive on the pricing front.

Other, more recent reports suggest that Sony could still be launching the PS6 at a premium price, but in the ballpark of $600 to $800 with “reasonable subsidies”. The rumoured cost of manufacturing as per Insider Gaming is said to be $760, and we do know that consoles are initially sold at a loss – so this is definitely possible. As for the handheld, the price is expected to be somewhere around $399 and $699, and given the impressive spec sheet, fans should expect to pay a good premium over Nintendo’s offerings.

As for when the PS6 will actually arrive, most credible estimates point toward a launch window between 2027 and 2028. This aligns with Sony’s historical console cycle, which typically spans around six to seven years between major releases. The PS5 launched in 2020, so it’s only logical that we start to hear the first rumours about the future of the platform.

However, some factors could also influence this timeline. Ongoing supply chain issues, fluctuations in semiconductor availability, and global DRAM shortage could all impact development and production schedules. So it’s also possible that these challenges could push the launch closer to 2028 rather than 2027.

Ultimately, while the increasing complexity of modern hardware may lead to longer development cycles and potentially greater gaps between console generations, the constant flow of rumors confirms that the PS6 is much more than a distant concept and development is clearly well underway behind the scenes. While Sony has yet to make anything official, the PS6 does look to be the next major step in the evolution of the PlayStation platform, and we are definitely excited to see how it all develops.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

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).

Other notable figures include 74.6 million software units sold on PS4 and PS5 combined – a 1.5 million drop from last year. Of that total, first-party titles made up 5.8 million, down by 100,00 year-on-year. The percentage of full-game software digital downloads continues to rise, hitting 85 percent. As for the PlayStation Network, it’s now at 125 million active users monthly.

Interestingly, Sony notes that its operating income forecast for fiscal year 2027, which ends March 31st, 2027, is flat year-on-year due to “the incorporation of an increase in investments for the next-generation platform.” That said, current profits are expected to see “double-digit rate” increases.

As for PS5 sales, Sony is banking on the “volume of memory” it can obtain at “reasonable prices” (which may be a tall order given the state of the memory crisis). Otherwise, it expects profitability from hardware sales to remain the same as the last fiscal year. It may not seem overtly ambitious, but with rumors about the PS6 allegedly targeting Holiday 2027, it may very well have something big in store.

Having worked at the company since December 2023, Bhunia’s responsibilities revolve around “leading research efforts to elevate real-time visual quality for PlayStation experiences—spanning video frame interpolation, super-resolution, and generative models.” Frame interpolation is the technology that enables AMD and Nvidia graphics cards to use AI models to generate frames to place between a game’s actual frames.

Bhunia has also noted that a major highlight of his time at Sony has been “core research behind the frame interpolation pipeline for the next-generation PlayStation platforms,” which led to the filing of two patents. Interestingly, Bhunia’s tools and methods used to achieve this include Nvidia technologies like CUDA and Tensor RT, which is odd since the PS6 reportedly runs on an AMD chip. However, the tools may be used only for research, with the actual methods for frame interpolation likely coming from AMD itself.

It is worth noting that Sony itself is yet to officially announce its next-generation console.

Recent speculation has noted that the PS6 will offer 10 times the performance of the PS5 when it comes to ray tracing. However, a recent leak indicated that this won’t directly lead to games running at 10x the frame rate. In a series of posts, industry insider KeplerL2 has noted that the performance boosts would be applied to things like frame pacing, rather than direct frame rates. Taking performance data for Assassin’s Creed Shadows as an example, the PS6 will be able to output each frame for the title in 1.35 milliseconds, rather than the PS5’s capability of 5 milliseconds per frame. Coupled with the fact that the PS5 runs the title at an average frame rate of around 33.33 FPS, the PS6 will be capable of going up to 103.3 FPS.

There has also been speculation about a potential low-power version of the PS6, colloquially referred to as PS6S or PS6 “Lite”. This console could feasibly run on the same hardware as the PS6 handheld and would focus on outputting 1080p visuals. However, KeplerL2 has noted that this is unlikely since it “would be a nightmare for devs”. Rather than using the handheld’s custom Canis APU, the leaker noted that Sony would be better off using binned versions of the home console’s Orion APU instead.

As for when we can expect the next-generation console to be unveiled, many analysts and rumors state that the current memory shortages might lead to a delay into 2028. However, more recent reports allege that AMD has already begun its validation work for the chips powering the next-gen console. This means Sony is still likely on track for a 2027 launch window.

According to KeplerL2, the YouTuber is misinterpreting what it means for a chip to be, for example, 10 times more powerful than its predecessor, believing it to indicate that it would offer 300 frames per second on a 30 FPS game. This would be like comparing the same game running on an RTX 5090 with 200 FPS and believing that the PS6 would be more powerful than Nvidia’s current-generation flagship graphics card.

“I’ve explained this before, but [Moore’s Law is Dead] is misinterpreting AMD docs [with regards to] performance,” wrote the leaker. “He thinks if a slide says ‘Orion 10x RT perf vs [PS5’s chip] Oberon’, it means you can look at PS5 running a game at 30 FPS, multiply that by 10x and compare with 5090 doing, let’s say, 200 FPS, and conclude PS6 > 5090.”

In a further post, KeplerL2 explained the numbers by bringing in Ubisoft’s performance data for Assassin’s Creed Shadows across PS5, PS5 Pro, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and a PC running on an RTX 4080. Using this data, and assuming a 10x performance bump in ray tracing on the PS6, the industry insider noted that the difference would largely be seen in how quickly the console can generate frames, bringing it down from the PS5’s 5 milliseconds to 1.35 milliseconds.

This means that, while the PS5 is capable of an average frame rate of around 33.33 FPS, the PS6 will, in turn, be capable of around 103.3 FPS. This means that the real-world performance boost offered by the claims of it being “10x faster” results in around 3.10 times the frame rates. KeplerL2 has noted that more demanding ray tracing scenes, and even path-traced scenes, would see the difference be much higher. “But even in those cases, the raster/compute portion of the frame time is still generally over 50 percent, so a ’10x RT’ increase doesn’t reach anywhere near a 10x FPS increase,” they wrote.

Earlier this month, there had also been some speculation about Sony possibly using the PS6 handheld’s Canis APU to sell a cheaper home console variant. However, KeplerL2 has noted that this is unlikely since it “would be a nightmare for devs.” They noted that the APU was designed with “specialized low power libraries,” which means that it also can’t be overclocked if provided with adequate cooling and power.

A more likely solution to this, they wrote, would be if Sony were to use a lower-power version of the Orion APU powering the PS6 home console to build a cheaper variant of the console. Through this, the company could also potentially save on its bill of materials, while also getting near-100 percent yields from the fabrication process.

When asked about the handheld already presenting a challenge for developers, KeplerL2 noted that studios will likely find it easier to scale games down to make them look good on a 1080p display rather than using low-powered hardware to run things on a 4K TV. Along with this, whether or not Sony will insist on developers supporting the PS6 handheld with their releases is still currently unknown.

As for whether the PS6 handheld’s chip could theoretically be made more powerful by adding extra cooling solutions to prevent thermal throttling, KeplerL2 wrote that the Canis APU has been “built with specialized low power libraries.” This means that “it can’t run at high clock speeds no matter how much power you throw at it.”

Using upscaling technologies would also present its own challenges. Since the PS6 handheld is expected to support FSR 5 and PSSR 3, upscaling from the rumoured 540p internal resolution to its 1080p display would take around 2 milliseconds. However, trying to upscale the same image to an even higher resolution, like a 4K TV, would take a lot more time.

“That’s a 16x upscale, which is very hard to do without image artifacts/blur,” they wrote. “Upscale cost is also based on output resolution, so if we assume 1080p upscale FSR5/PSSR3 is around 2ms on Canis, then 4K upscale would be about 8ms. Even with higher clocks from a docked configuration, it’s likely 5-6ms minimum, so devs would need to do extra optimization for docked config just to hit the same FPS as handheld mode.”

Continuing the speculation on a low-powered PS6, KeplerL2 believes that it might be better for Sony to use a weaker version of the Orion APU, which powers the PS6 home console, rather than using Canis. Noting that going with a 6-core CPU cluster, a 16 WGP GPU, 10 percent slower clock speeds on CPU and GPU, and a 128-bit memory bus with 24 GB of RAM would reduce the bill of materials for such a hypothetical console by around $60 for the memory, and between $20 and $30 for the board and cooling. Along with this, Sony could potentially also get near-100 percent yields from chip fabricators.

The idea of a PS6″S” console was brought up by Moore’s Law is Dead, who had discussed its potential bill of materials by using Canis sitting at around $404.38. The idea was that, while the regular PS6 could be sold at around $700, the handheld could sit at the $500-600 spot, and the PS6S could be sold for around $400-500.

MP1st reportedly spotted new casting calls under the codename “Shimmer” with Mari Ueda of Pivot Motion (which worked on Death Stranding 2: On the Beach) serving as casting director. The described scene allegedly involves a hijacked bus with multiple passengers, including a mother and her baby, various teenagers, and so on.

It’s the last reported requirement that’s so interesting – an “antagonistic character with a German accent.” Apparently described as “Mads Mikkelsen in Hannibal but with flair”, he’s reportedly slim, quiet, “intense” and “confident in a psychotic way.” Shooting allegedly starts in June, though the fact that so many showcases and events are taking place at the same time is likely a sheer coincidence.

However, this is unlikely to be a major villain akin to, say, Higgs from Death Stranding. Such details don’t typically emerge in casting calls (but rather through Kojima’s own announcements). Whether this scene is even for the game remains to be seen, but it’s at least indicative that production is underway.

While it was in the conceptual stage last year, Kojima confirmed that it and OD would be a major focus for the company in 2026. Thus far, three actors have been announced – Charlee Fraser, Ma Dong-Seok and Minami Hamabe. Could the year hold even more reveals? Stay tuned in the meantime.