It sounds like we’re going to learn more about a next-generation PlayStation sooner rather than later now that we have thePS5 Proin our hands.

In early 2024, Sony Senior Vice President Naomi Matsuokatold Bloombergthe following: “Looking ahead, PS5 will enter the latter stage of its life cycle.” While she didn’t outright say that a PlayStation 6 is in the works, we can assume that the company is already looking ahead at its next console.

Despite there only being rumors and vague official statements regarding next-gen hardware to work with, it’s never too early to start speculating about the next-gen consoles. How will the PS6 compare to thePS5? Will any of thebest games on PS5make their way to the PS6? And what aboutupcoming PS5 gamesthat are going to launch soon?

Nothing is set in stone, but it’s still fun to take a look at what the future of PlayStation may look like.

PS6 latest news

The PS6 could realistically launch in 2028

If there was one person we trust most to know when the PS6 could be expected to release, it is architect Mark Cerny. Last year he announced a major partnership with AMD for Project Amethyst, which would help improve upscaling on the PS5 Pro that is expected in 2026. Later on in a newTom’s Guide article, Cerny comments on AMD’s progress in designing the next generation of GPU hardware. While that new tech could be ready as early as next year, Cerny stated that “What I’m trying to do is prepare for the next generation of consoles, so my time-frame is multi-year here.” While not specific, the term “muti-year” does help reinforce 2028 as a safe bet for the PS6.

Earlier estimates had the PlayStation 6 pegged at a 2027-2028 timeframe, but one rumored detail from anInsider Gaming reportcould indicate a 2027 release. Take this with a big grain of salt as Insider Gaming’s track record for leaks is shaky at best, but it reports that a cancelled, unannouncedBlade Runnergame was targeting a September 2027 release on both current and “Gen 10” platforms. The implication is that the PS6 would be out at that time, but we have a very hard time believing that to be true.

The biggest clue as to when a PS6 could come out, or at least may have been planned to at one point, points to 2027 or 2028. This information comes from an officialMicrosoft court documentas part of the Activision Blizzard acquisition: “By the time SIE launched the next generation of its PlayStation console (which is likely to occur around [redacted]), it would have lost access to Call of Duty.” The date is redacted here, but sleuths have connected the dots between this and the deal Microsoft offered Sony to keep Activision Blizzard games on PlayStation consoles until 2027. That would suggest that, at the earliest, Microsoft didn’t believe a new PlayStation would come before 2027.

If we look at past generations, that time frame falls in line with the life spans of past generations. ThePlayStation 4had seven years before the PS5 came out, and thePlayStation 3was also around for seven years before its successor showed up. The PS5 launched in 2020, meaning 2027 would once again leave us with a seven-year console cycle. We wouldn’t put money on 2027 for sure, but anything from late 2027 onward feels like a safe bet.

A recent leaker namedKeplerL2 released a report on NeoGafin which they claimed thePS6 could be released sometime in 2027, which is a bit earlier than most expected. They deduced this date based on their reported knowledge of the PS6 chipset being nearly complete and ready for fabrication. Based on previous trends, the timeline between a chipset being finalized and entering fabrication and the console launching is about two years, leading to the 2027 estimate. As far as what chips the PS6 will reportedly be running on, KeplrL2 suggests that it will be a Zen6 running on N2 architecture and an early fork of gfx13, aka AMD RDNA5.

Furthermore, according toTechnetbook, reports claim that the SoC is in pre-silicon validation which typically has a two-year lead time, ahead of a 2027 launch.

For those who may not be so familiar with chipsets and simply want to know what this means for the PS6, the short version is that it will easily eclipse what the PS5 is currently capable of. However, as with all leaks, this should only be taken as a rumor and not necessarily indicative of reality until Sony itself releases official information. Even if some of this were true, there is still time for plans to change regarding the chips and release date.

On the other hand, former PlayStation executive Shuhei Yoshida spoke toVentureBeatabout possible PS6 timing. When talking about the averageconsole generationlifecycle putting the end of the PS5 generation around 2027, which is what the previous leaker suggested, Yoshida replied “I have no information about the next PlayStation, but it feels a bit too early for me to say. The PS5 generation was slowed down because of manufacturing issues. If the next PlayStation comes out in 2028, that feels right to me.” It should be noted that Yoshida does not have any insider knowledge about when the PS6 will actually be released. That said, he had been working at PlayStation for over 30 years, previously acting as president of SIE, and would therefore have a good idea of what timescales the company works in and what the vision for a console launch would look like.

While nothing substantial was revealed, Sony did host abusiness presentation on June 13and did comment on both future hardware and handhelds. In regards to the next generation of hardware, Sony Interactive Entertaniment CEO Hideaki Nishino stated, “Our console business has evolved into a multi-faceted platform, and we now have a large ecosystem of highly engaged players across both the PS5 and PS4 generations, so naturally therefore, there’s a huge interest in our next generation console strategy. While we cannot share further details at this stage, the future of the platform is top of mind.” Again, nothing substantial but it does at least confirm that Sony is focused on next-gen hardware.

In June 2025,KeplerL2 once again took to NeoGafto talk more about possible PS6 specs and launch timing. They replied to multiple questions in the thread, but I’ve picked out the core details they supposedly know. First is that the PS6 and next Xbox will both be using UDNA architecture for their GPUs. Compared to RDNA4, which is currently in use in the PS5 Pro, the UDNA could be 20% faster.

When asked about launch timing, KeplerL2 is also in the 2027 camp. They claim both are” likely 2027″ but suggests that Xbox may want to rush their console out to beat the PS6. They also say that the APU would be ready this year, so theoretically the PS6 could come out late 2026, but seems to think that Sony wouldn’t feel the need to rush the console out.

In July,Moore’s Law Is Deadreleased a video with leaked info about AMD’s Magnus APU, which he believes could be used in the PS6. You can watch the final section of the video if you want to get into the finer details, such as core count, die sizes, and all that technical jargon. To further add some credibility to this leak, at least in terms of accuracy, KeplerL2 also chimed in to corroborate the specs, but they believe this chip is intended for the next Xbox hardware, not the PS6.According to KeplerL2, “That is probably the next-gen Xbox, the codenames that AMD uses for PlayStation SoCs are from Shakespeare characters.” He also notes that the “design in general looks too expensive to be the PS6 too. Cerny is a lot more conservative with die area.” As always, take everything here with a grain of salt, but generally speaking, the more leaks we get, the closer we are to something official being announced.

On August 24, 2025,Moore’s Law Is Deaddropped another bomb of a leak. This time, they claim to have uncovered an AMD presentation from 2023 with possible specs for both the PS6 and PlayStation handheld. I’ll discuss the handheld rumors below in that section of the article, but according to this document, the PS6 is codenamed “Orion” and was proposed to begin manufacturing in late 2027. The high-level information here is that the PS6 would have specs on par with an RTX 4080, be 3x faster than the base PS5, have enhanced Ray Tracing, and be able to output games at either 4K 120FPS or 8K 60FPS. The real kicker, though, is MLID predicts Sony is keeping its specs conservative in an effort to launch the PS6 at just $500. Again, these are just leaks, but even if true, are from 2023 and plans could easily change in two or more years.

Given everything we’ve seen so far, 2028 sounds like the safer bet for a PS6 launch.

All PlayStation console release years

For reference, it can be helpful to look back and see the general cadence Sony releases its consoles at. Keep in mind, however, that generations have been getting longer and longer as we go on so we shouldn’t look at these gaps as perfect predictors for when the PS6 will come out, but rather some guiding data that could help us narrow down possible release windows. (We won’t be including other hardware like handhelds or VR headsets and just look at proper PlayStation console hardware here).

As we can see, the gap between all previous generations was either 6 or 7 years long, including the PS4 generation which had a Pro model. If that trend were to continue, it would point to a 2027 release window for a PS6, but again, this data isn’t predictive. We still hold firm in thinking 2028 is a more realistic year to expect a PS6, which would still only be one year longer than a typical PlayStation console lifecycle.

Until we know spec details or the launch date, the launch-day price of a PS6 is hard to estimate with any degree of certainty — but there are some data points we can look at to guess.

The mid-generation update PS5 Pro — an expensive butjustworthwhile update compared to the base model PS5— comes witha hefty price tag of $700, which Sony has repeatedly defended. Some analysts have viewed PS5 Pro pricing as a water-testing endeavor by Sony, looking to see how high it can push the price ahead of the PS6 launch. In aninterview with Gamesbeat, said they expect the PS6, along with the next-gen Xbox, to launch at $600 despite the price hike on the PS5 Pro.

With the current state of world trade and tariff policies in the U.S., we don’t think any previous estimates are accurate anymore. If anything, we suggest preparing for a PS6 to cost above and beyond $700 at the moment and just hope we are wrong.

Exact specifications for the PS6 are a bit scarce.Moore’s Law is Deadhas stated that it knows “with 100% certainty that Sony will continue its partnership with AMD to power the PS6 and PS5 Pro.” This would make sense as this is the same chipset used in the PS5, so sticking with it would make things like backward compatibility and cross-generational games much easier. The next generation of AMD chips is planned to be released in 2025, so that could be what the PS6 is built with. That does lend some credence to the leak about the chipset mentioned previously that suggested a Zen6 running on N2 architecture and an early fork of gfx13, aka AMD RDNA5.

In fact,Reuters reportedin September 2024 that Intel lost out on a bid to design the PS6 chipset back in 2022 to AMD. Should the PS6 use AMD chips as is being reported, this would make backward compatibility much easier since the PS5 and PS5 Pro both run on custom AMD chipsets.

We suspect a new SSD will be included as that was a major push in the PS5 to nearly cut out loading times, but no word has been leaked on that.

By the time a PS6 comes out, we would also expect at least 2TB of storage, especially if the console ends up being digital-only.

One interesting wrinkle when talking about specs is a new rumor from a somewhat reliable leaker reported on byMetro. According to them, Sony is creating two systems on a chip (SoCs) in preparation for the PS6 generation. This would imply two distinct consoles rather than two models like we saw with the digital and standard PS5s. This could be pointing toward a higher-end and lower-end version of the system that could hit two different price points, but some people think it signals a new handheld system alongside a PS6.

A translated leak fromzhangzhonghaosupposedly sheds light on quite a bit of the PS6 architecture. They calim that the PS6’s RDNA5 is now called UDNA, will have MI400 and RX9000 on the same architecture, with the GPU set to go into mass production in the second quarter of 2026.

In terms of the CPU, apparently, Sony hasn’t decided between a ZEN4 or ZEN 5.

PS6 features

Insider Gaming claims to have a document regarding one very unique feature that is being worked on for the PS6 called PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR). This technology reportedly will allow games to run at either 4K at 120 frames per second (fps) or 8K at 60 fps,according to Insider Gaming. We’ve seen this technology in action with the PS5 Pro and it is already making games look and run far better than the base unit. It makes sense that we would see an improved version of this technology on the PS6 to push things even further.

Is the PS6 a handheld?

Besides the PS6, there are plenty of rumors suggesting that there will also be a new PlayStation handheld released as part of the PS6 “family.” This is claimed to be a companion device to the PS6, so Sony isn’t abandoning the home console space. This is backed up by the rumors we mentioned about there being two SoCs in development. This handheld, according to leakerKeplerL2, will have a 15W SoC on 3nm. For those of us who have no idea what that means, thankfully, they broke it down to mean that it won’t be anywhere near the level of a PS6 (based on what we suspect it to be) but “it can definetely run PS5 games, just not at the same resolution/FPS, mainly due to lower memory bandwidth.” KeplerL2 estimates its power to be somewhere between the Xbox Series S and X.

Newinformationhas surfaced in the past months that suggest Sony could be using an AMD RDNA5-based GPU with 28-32 compute units paired with 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 20MB of cache (4MB L2 + 16MB MALL), and more modest SoC for portable play. We’ve also heard that the handheld will feature support for advanced AI upscaling and ray tracing. The new device wouldn’t just stream games like the PS5 Portal – it’s expected to run games natively on hardware similar to the scaled down PS6. If this all comes true, the PS6 generation could mark a solid return to the kind of hybrid hardware ecosystem we saw with the PS Vita, and could give Nintendo a run for their money.

Again referencing the June 13 business meeting from earlier, Noshino was asked specifically about Sony’s handheld plans. After talking about the PlayStation Portal, he adds that “Sales [of the Portal] are progressing steadily and more importantly, it has unlocked additional engagement across our player base, so we remain committed to exploring new ways for players to access our content and services.” Again, nothing committal but does acknowledge that the Portal has done very well for the company and it is interested in exploring ways beyond the home console for fans to engage with PlayStation.

Along with the PS6 specs and codename from Moore’s Law Is Dead leaked on August 1, they also revealed 2023 plans for a PlayStation handheld. Codenamed “Canis”, this handheld is supposedly being built with a USB-C port with output capabilities. This implies Sony is looking to utlize some sort of dock with the handheld, much like theSwitch 2. The handheld would be manufactured alongside the PS6 for a simultaneous release, presumably in 2028, and have roughly half the power of the PS5. If true, this would still make it a more powerful handheld than theROG Xbox Ally X, but priced closer to what the Switch 2 sells for.

Other PS6 rumors and speculation

With so much talk about the PS6, there are some rumors and speculation that don’t fit as neatly into the other main categories.

For example, after learning that Cloud Chamber has delayedBioshock 4out of its original late 2026 or early 2027 window, some think that it could be slated to come to the PS6. If the PS6 is coming in 2028 as we suspect, this would make sense. However, this logic is taking a lot of liberty in assuming both the release of this game and the next-gen console. Even if true, you probably won’t need to get a PS6 to play it since it will almost certainly be a cross-gen title given its prolonged development cycle.