PS6 console might not be as expensive as you’d think claims insider
Despite the recently announced price hikes for the PS5, a leaker claims Sony’s next console might not cost upwards of £800.
Following Sony’s recently announced price hikes for the PlayStation 5, there’s been concern over what this means for its next console.
From Thursday, April 2, all PlayStation 5 consoles will be £90 more expensive in the UK. The most expensive, the PS5 Pro, will be a whopping £789.99/$899.99, so naturally you’d assume that Sony’s PlayStation 6, which is expected to launch in 2027, will cost even more.
Several analysts have predicted Sony’s next console could cost $1,000 in the US in light of this increase, but a leaker has suggested otherwise.
In a post on NeoGAF, insider KeplerL2, who is known for leaking hardware specs, estimated the PlayStation 6’s current bill of materials is around $760 (£574).
‘My current BOM estimate for PS6 is ~$760, so I would say $699 is still possible with a reasonable subsidy,’ they wrote. ‘The question is if Sony will even bother now that Xbox is not direct competition anymore.’
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Most companies typically sell consoles at a loss at launch, hence the $699 (£528) price estimate for the PlayStation 6. However, considering the current price conversion between the US and the UK on PlayStation 5 consoles, it’s likely we’re looking at £599.99 based on these estimates.
KeplerL2 further clarifies that this estimate applies to a PlayStation 6 with 1TB SSD drive and without a disc drive, so it will presumably be the cheapest option. For a comparison, the cheapest PlayStation 5 console will be £519.99 from this week, so it sort of lines up.
As such, the top-end PlayStation 6 variant will likely still be more expensive than a PlayStation 5 Pro, but the lowest SKU might be at least attainable in comparison.
However, this estimate certainly feels like the best case scenario, as it’s unclear if they’re taking into account shipping or retail costs. As they point out too, with Xbox barely being a rival at this point, there’s little incentive for Sony to be competitive with its price.
Another big question is whether the PlayStation 6 will launch in 2027, as many expect. The worldwide memory shortage could prompt Sony to delay the console in the hope of a RAM price drop, but there’s no guarantee that components will be cheaper down the line.
As KeplerL2 goes onto suggest, the ‘safe strategy’ might be to launch the PlayStation 6 in 2027.
‘AMD could theoretically take the 3nm wafer capacity and use it in other products [if Sony delayed the console] but I’m not sure the demand is high enough since most of their flagship datacenter stuff is actually 2nm,’ they added. ‘So, there would probably be some penalty that Sony would have to pay, and wafer prices for a 2028/2029 launch would be even higher.
‘The only reason for a delay would be hoping for a RAM/NAND price collapse, but as I said before no one knows if/when/by how much prices will come down. So a delay is a bit of a gamble and the safe strategy is actually to launch in 2027 as planned.’
Other insiders have similarly suggested the PS6 will launch next year for the same reason, but considering how slow the transition was between the PlayStation 4 and the PlayStation 5, it’s unclear what demand there’ll be for a new console at this point.
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