Ampere analyst Piers Harding-Rolls has said that Sony’s recent announcement that it will be ending production of physical game discs in January 2028 “almost certainly guarantees” that the PS6 will launch in 2028.
The format holder announced today that all new PlayStation games produced after that date will be digital-only releases, available either through the PlayStation Store or at retailers. In regards to the PS6, while Sony has not yet announced anything specific about its next-generation system, it has been rumoured for some time now that the console is likely to arrive in lat 2027. That’s no longer the case, believes Harding-Rolls.
“First, we believe this almost certainly guarantees that the PS6 won’t arrive until 2028 at the earliest,” he commented. “Ampere’s current expectation is that the console will launch at the end of 2028.” Harding-Rolls added that PS6 will now “at a minimum” not feature a disc drive. “Sony will be looking for all the ways it can reduce the cost of its next-gen console, and this is an easy win. It’s possible that an add-on disc drive could be made available to play older PS4 and PS5 games on disc.”
Earlier his week, hardware leaker Kepler_L2 stated that the Bill of Materials for the PS6 has increased in the last few months, which means it now costs Sony nearly $1,000 to make the console. He also said that Sony should avoid delaying the new system despite the rise in memory costs, as prices would only rise as a result. The same leaker has long believed that the PS6 will arrive in late 2027, and had speculated that Sony could ship it without a disc drive to keep costs down.
[Source – VGC]