Everything we know so far about Sony’s next-gen console

Sony launched the PlayStation 5 in the course of the vacation season of 2020. Not solely was the PS5 extra highly effective than the PS4, however it additionally provided a wide range of options not out there within the prior era, like a high-speed SSD, hardware-accelerated ray tracing, 3D audio help, and extra. Not to say, the brand new DualSense was the largest departure in PlayStation’s historical past concerning controller design.

Now that we’re three years in, going into the fourth 12 months, it will be protected to imagine we’re about on the midway level of the era’s lifecycle. As such, it’s about time to start out considering about what Sony has in retailer for us subsequent. What improvements may Sony deliver to its sixth-generation console? There are already leaks and rumors spreading about, and on this PS6 rumor hub, we’ll let you know all about them. Here’s every thing we know about the PlayStation 6 so far.

Until we attain a spot the place video games could be streamed with out reliability questions, latency issues, and so on, the necessity for brand spanking new consoles will all the time be there. Although Sony hasn’t acknowledged the existence of a sixth-generation PlayStation, the corporate is undoubtedly engaged on its improvement. We gained’t doubtless hear about the PS6 till we’re a minimum of a 12 months away from its launch, and we’re most likely just a few years out from that.

Will there be multiple mannequin?

When the PS5 launched, Sony provided two variations of the system — one with a disc drive and one with out. The disc-less Digital Edition offered for $100 lower than the disc model to present consumers a less expensive choice. At the second, it’s tough to inform if Sony will do the identical for the discharge of the PS6. More folks than ever are solely shopping for digital copies reasonably than bodily ones. And provided that the brand new model of the PS5 Digital Edition could be fitted with an attachable disc drive, this will give us a touch at Sony’s future technique.

It’s attainable that Sony may decide to make a single all-digital PS6. However, Sony might design the console in a manner that enables clients to connect a disc drive, which might be out there on the market individually. Of course, that is all hypothesis, and we’ll get a greater concept of what to anticipate the nearer we get to launch time.

• PlayStation 3 — November 11, 2006
• PlayStation 4 — November 15, 2013
• PlayStation 5 — November 12, 2020

When it involves recreation consoles, it’s normally not too exhausting to foretell launch home windows, particularly in the case of the PlayStation. On common, console lifecycles final anyplace between six to 10 years. For Sony, specifically, the corporate tends to lean nearer to 6 or seven, with seven being the extra frequent selection. Sony additionally nearly all the time releases its new methods within the month of November to get forward of vacation purchasing. The solely occasions it didn’t was for the unique console and the PS2, however they launched solely a month later in December.

With this data, it’s protected to imagine the PS6 might be launched in November. And there’s a risk it can come out in 2026 or 2027. Sony’s Executive VP of Hardware Engineering, Masayasu Ito, additionally confirmed in an interview with Game Informer that the PS5’s lifecycle is anticipated to be six to seven years. However, the corporate may select to increase the PS5’s lifecycle by an additional 12 months, in accordance with Microsoft.

During Microsoft’s courtroom struggle to accumulate Activision Blizzard, leaked paperwork (through IGN) tipped that Microsoft expects Sony to launch the {hardware} in late 2027 or 2028. Of course, there’s solely so a lot that Microsoft can know about what choices are being made inside Sony. But as a result of Microsoft predicts an extended PS5 cycle, we’re inclined to consider the almost definitely launch date for the PS6 might be November 2027.

With the launch doubtless being years away, it’s a bit of early to start out speaking about specs and options. But we’ll attempt to scrape collectively what little info we have about the PS6 and supply extra info because it turns into out there.

Design

The PS5 was a drastic change in Sony’s typical design philosophy. It’s anybody’s guess as to what the corporate’s subsequent console will seem like. But a rumor floating around the internet claims that Mark Cerny — lead architect of the PS5 — might be again on the helm.

If we needed to enterprise a guess proper now, we would suspect that the PS6 might be smaller than the PS5. When the PS5 launched, it earned the title of the most important recreation console of all time. The console is so massive, actually, that it spawned memes about how folks have been unable to suit the system into their leisure facilities. It could be exhausting to consider that Sony would select to make the system even greater than that.

Specs

The PS6 might be extra highly effective than the PS5; that’s normally the purpose of recent generations. But what’s going to the next-gen console have below the hood that offers it that further oomph? As with many different sections on this rumor hub, there aren’t sufficient PS6 leaks or rumors to kind a stable guess in the mean time. However, it may assist to level out what the PS5 is working with.

The PS5 makes use of a 3.5GHz eight-core AMD Zen 2 for its CPU with a customized AMD RDNA 2-based GPU. There’s additionally 16GB of GDDR6 RAM with an 825GB customized SSD. Additionally, it has help for 120Hz output for 4K and 8K TVs and variable refresh price (VRR). You can see a full breakdown in our PS5 specs checklist.

Sony may select to improve every of those specs or just a few of them. We’ll simply have to attend a bit of longer and see what PS6 leaks come our manner.

Features

The PS5 comes outfitted with numerous options, lots of which can most likely discover their manner into the PS6. Sony will most definitely embrace new options together with these present options as effectively. But at this stage, it’s too early to inform what Sony will stuff into its subsequent system. A couple of attainable candidates may embrace storage growth, backwards compatibility, 3D audio (Tempest and/or Dolby Atmos), and cloud streaming.

Something else we may find yourself seeing is extra PlayStation Link integration. PlayStation Link is a proprietary wi-fi audio connectivity commonplace created by Sony. It’s stated to supply lossless low-latency audio, multi-device connections, and different advantages over Bluetooth. Sony adopted the usual — whereas neglecting Bluetooth — in its PlayStation Portal, Pulse Explore earbuds, and Pulse Elite headset. There’s likelihood Sony desires to include this expertise in its subsequent console to have a extra related ecosystem. Unfortunately, this additionally means dangerous information for anybody who desires to make use of their present Bluetooth earbuds or headphones.

Given the present frenzy over AI, it wouldn’t be a lot of a shock if Sony was contemplating incorporating AI into its subsequent system in some type of manner. We may see this come within the type of one thing like serving to gamers get hints for the video games, just like how Google was planning to make use of Google Assistant for the now-defunct Stadia. Although it’s controversial, it’s attainable we might even see the expertise leak into the video games we play. For instance, NVIDIA confirmed off a demo in early 2023 of a conversational AI-powered NPC. Xbox additionally not too long ago partnered with AI NPC creator Inworld this 12 months.

Sony has filed quite a few attention-grabbing patents, with among the extra notable ones associated to potential controller options. The most up-to-date patent described a controller that might double as an earbuds charging case. Another patent imagined a controller that might change temperature and deform. Like with any patent, nonetheless, there’s no assure Sony will transfer ahead with any of those concepts.

• PlayStation 3 — $499
• PlayStation 4 — $399
• PlayStation 5 disc/digital version — $499/$399

No official value has been given but, and we don’t anticipate that to occur anytime quickly. It’s additionally too early for any leaks and even rumors about the value to be floating round. As such, all we can do in the mean time is speculate.

For the final couple of generations, the beginning value of PlayStation consoles has been between $399-$499. This is the vary each Sony and its closest competitor — Microsoft — have a tendency to focus on when launching a brand new console. And ever because the poor reception of the $600 60GB PS3, the corporate has tried its greatest to steer away from that value level.

Taking all of this under consideration, we don’t see Sony transferring away from this technique. So, the value of the PS6 will almost definitely be no decrease than $399 and no greater than $599.

As with any resolution involving cash, whether or not it’s best to anticipate the PS6 will depend on time and your state of affairs. For instance, the PS6 is probably going years away from launch, so in the event you presently have a PS4 or Xbox One and wish to improve, it will most likely be higher so that you can simply get a PS5 or Xbox Series X|S. On the opposite hand, you probably have a PC or Xbox Series X|S and are advantageous with ready, then you definately would possibly as effectively anticipate a PS6.

At this time, the reply will nearly all the time be no; you shouldn’t wait. But that may change as soon as we get a 12 months or two out from launch. As talked about earlier than, we’re about midway within the lifecycle proper now, so it is going to be some time till that establishment modifications.

If you want an alternative choice to the PS6, you could wish to think about the Xbox Series X ($489 at Amazon). Or you might go for the OLED Nintendo Switch ($348 at Amazon). Valve additionally launched an OLED model of the Steam Deck that gives quite a few enhancements over the unique ($549 at Manufacturer web site).