Sony hasn’t decided its PlayStation 6 launch date – blame AI

Analysts expect the PlayStation 6 to launch in late 2027 – Sony says that hasn’t been decided

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal (paywalled), Sony CEO Hiroko Totoki confirmed that the company has not set a release date for its planned PlayStation 6 console. Between high memory prices and other component shortages, the hardware landscape is in dire straits. If you’ve seen the price of a PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X/S lately, you’ll know how much hardware prices have skyrocketed. Now imagine releasing a console with more RAM and stronger specifications in that landscape.

Until now, analysts have believed that Sony plans to release its PlayStation 6 console in late 2027. Now, that release date seems less clear. If today’s memory shortage persists, Sony may have to release its next-generation console later.

Hardware shortages aren’t just bad for Sony’s PlayStation division; they’re bad for its entire hardware lineup. Component shortages impact all of its devices, and all of Sony’s devices have some form of memory. That said, high-memory devices like gaming consoles are hit hardest by today’s shortages.

Totoki said the company still hasn’t fixed a date for PS6’s launch

– Wall Street Journal

A delay could harm the PlayStation 6’s impact

Sony built the PlayStation 6 with cutting-edge hardware. If leaked specifications are accurate, the system will launch with AMD Zen 6 CPU cores and Radeon RDNA 5 graphics tech. Neither architecture is available on PC CPUs or GPUs. Sony has also worked with AMD on “Project Amethyst”, ensuring stronger hardware utilisation with new hardware/software features.

If Sony delays its PlayStation 6 console, it won’t be able to use that extra time to change the specifications of their console/consoles. The silicon has already been designed. At best, Sony can only tinker with the clock speeds of its chips, enhance its firmware, and ship their device with faster memory (if faster memory chips become readily available). None of these changes would be game-changing. This could also delay the console long past the PC release dates of AMD’s Zen 6 CPUs and RDNA 5 GPUs. This will lessen the PS6’s impact and make its hardware seem less innovative or cutting-edge when it eventually launches.

When will the memory shortage end?

As it stands, it is unknown when today’s memory shortage will end. Even if supply meets demand, it will take a while for pricing to return to “normal” levels. If anything is to blame for the memory shortage, it’s AI and speculative investment in datacenters. If AI fails to deliver a return on investment, and hyperscalers scale back their datacenter investments, memory prices should fall. However, it remains to be seen how long the speculative investment in AI datacenters will continue, and how long it will take for memory providers to open new fabs and increase supply.

Gamers don’t hate AI enough. We’ve said this before at OC3D. AI and speculative investment are why everything is much more expensive now. It’s why the PlayStation 6 could be delayed, and why it will likely be insanely expensive at launch

You can join the discussion on the PS6 lacking a fixed release date on the OC3D Forums.