PS6 Plans Reportedly Thrown Into Uncertainty By AI Hardware Demand

The ongoing shortage of memory chips–which has been primarily attributed to AI companies buying up available stock–could push the launch of the PS6 console toward the end of the current decade, analysts believe.

Speaking to Bloomberg, experts who claim to be familiar with Sony’s strategies say that the current demand and rising costs of RAM have led to a “major upset” to Sony’s plans, as it is now considering pushing the PS6 launch to 2028 or even 2029. This lines up with a January report where a senior analyst claimed that there is a “high likelihood that the PS6 launch will occur after 2028.”

Recently, Sony confirmed that it has enough memory to meet demand for PS5 consoles throughout 2026, but it is planning to negotiate with various suppliers to secure a reliable supply going forward. “As for securing a supply of memory, we are already in a position to secure the minimum quantity necessary to manage the year-end selling season of next fiscal year–October to December 2026,” Sony CFO Lin Tao said.

Tao added that the “hardware sales strategy can be adjusted flexibly,” suggesting that the PS5 generation could be around for some time yet. It’s also worth noting that the rising prices of components like GPUs and RAM could add to a later launch for the PS6, which has not been officially announced by Sony yet. Rumors have begun circulating around its design, including its potential specifications and how a PlayStation handheld could launch alongside it.

In October last year, PS5 lead architect Mark Cerny and AMD SVP Jack Huynh shed more light on the technology that could potentially power the device, like Neural Radiance Caching and Universal Compression to reduce memory bandwidth usage.

Meanwhile, analysts also expect the Switch 2 price to increase in 2026. According to Niko Partners analyst Daniel Ahmad, earlier this month, the impact of tariffs and increasing memory prices could force Nintendo to raise the price of a Switch 2 console to $550. Nintendo announced in August 2025 that the price of the original Switch and other Nintendo products in the US would increase, but on the topic of Switch 2 pricing, it remains quiet for now.