Sony has not yet made an official decision on the release date and price for PlayStation 6. While new generation PlayStation investments were clearly included in the company’s latest financial evaluations, the increase in memory prices and supply uncertainty became the center of PS6 plans. Memory prices will be decisive in PlayStation 6 plans. Sony President and CEO Hiroki Totoki said that it has not been decided when the PlayStation 6 will be released and at what price it will be offered for sale.
While Totoki stated that the release timing and price for the new console have not yet been determined, he stated that the company will follow the current table. The main topic in Sony’s evaluation was memory prices. According to Totoki, under current conditions, memory prices are expected to remain high in fiscal year 2027. This is due to the ongoing tightness in supply. This directly affects the production cost of the next generation console.
In consoles, RAM and other memory components are among the critical items of the total parts cost. Therefore, price increases can affect not only the manufacturer’s margin but also the end-user price. Sony has largely secured the required volume of materials for the remaining part of the 2026 calendar year. The company also has agreements to a certain extent on the price side during this period. However, for PlayStation 6, the issue concerns a later period.
Memory cost uncertainty extending to fiscal year 2027 causes Sony to act more cautiously on the new console side. The new generation platform investment was clearly included in Sony’s financial presentation. The company will report to Game for fiscal year 2026. This statement shows that memory costs are decisive not only on PS6 but also on the current PS5 sales strategy. It was reported that Sony sold 1.5 million PlayStation 5 in the last quarter and the total sales of the console reached 93.7 million.
In the same period, PS5 fell behind PlayStation 4 in simultaneous generation comparison. The slowdown in PS5 sales is accompanied by the high price level, the advancement of the hardware cycle and component costs. User interaction in the company’s gaming section remains strong. According to Sony’s financial presentation, the number of monthly active users in the PlayStation ecosystem increased by 1 percent on an annual basis in March, reaching 125 million accounts.
This level was recorded as a record for the fourth quarter. Total playing time also increased by 1 percent on an annual basis in the same period. Totoki stated that the number of active users on PlayStation platforms continues to increase and emphasized that the demand has not decreased. This table gives Sony time to determine its next-generation console strategy. The company is open to not only reducing hardware costs but also evaluating different sales models.
Totoki said that different simulations will be worked on and various options will be evaluated, including changes in the business model. The increase in memory prices is not only Sony’s problem. The intense demand from artificial intelligence data centers also pressures the memory supply for game consoles and consumer electronics. Memory prices doubled in the first quarter and an additional increase of up to 63 percent is expected in the second quarter.
Although manufacturers such as Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron are investing in capacity, it will take at least a year for new capacity to come online.
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