By George Storr

Published: Wednesday, 29 June 2022 at 12:00 am

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The PlayStation 5 has been wowing gamers since it was released in November 2020. Now, almost two years on, is it too early to start wondering what its successor — the PS6 — might be like?

Historically PlayStation consoles have around a seven-year lifespan. The PS3 was released way back in 2006, then the PS4 turned up in 2013, and as mentioned the PS5 arrived in 2020. Each console had seven years for developers to populate the console’s game libraries and reach a point where the devices are maxing out their potential, with more tech needed to drive the gaming experience even further.

So, by those calculations, two years into the lifespan there is quite a long way to go for the PS5. However, thanks to the nature of the games industry Sony is already likely to be discussing the next PlayStation. So, what can we expect? How much is it likely to cost? And what are the early clues as to what form the PS6 might take?

Read on for our full guide or head over to our best PS5 games page for top titles you can play today.

When will we get a PS6 release date?

It seems likely then that we can expect the PS6 to launch in or around 2027, if the same cycle of new console tech continues.

Sony’s Executive Vice President of Hardware Engineering and Operation — Masayasu Ito — confirmed this is likely to remain the case in an interview with Game Informer.

He said: “In the past, the cycle for a new platform was 7 to 10 years, but in view of the very rapid development and evolution of technology, it’s really a six to seven year platform cycle.”

He added: “therefore our thinking is that as far as a platform is concerned for the PS5, it’s a cycle of maybe six to seven years. But doing that, a platform lifecycle, we should be able to change the hardware itself and try to incorporate advancements in technology. That was the thinking behind it, and the test case of that thinking was the PS4 Pro that launched in the midway of the PS4 launch cycle.”

Of course, the advent of game streaming may mean that by the time the PS6 comes around consoles have taken on a very different format.

PS6 price: how much will it cost?

Again, at this early stage we’ll have to rely on history to suggest what the new console might cost. The PS3 launched at £425 in the UK. When the PS4 arrived it cost a lower price of £349. Finally, the PS5 launched at £449, the highest of the three.

On the one hand it’s easy to imagine this upward trajectory continuing, but it’s also important note that the growing popularity of game streaming could counter this. Game streaming relies on a good internet connection to stream games to your console without any disc or download, both PlayStation and Xbox are introducing streaming facilities and they’ll be far more developed by the time the next console comes around.

Essentially, game streaming means that the bulk of the computing is done in the cloud and less demand is put on your console. This could mean that consoles of the future rely on super-fast internet connections but actually need less expensive, powerful internals. We’ll have to wait and see.

What should we expect from the PS6?

So, historical lessons suggest we’ll get a console that costs around £400, releases in 2027 and is called the PS6. All that depends on the impact that game streaming has on the console market though.

The next generation of consoles will no doubt be a crucial one. While the PS5 has outsold the Xbox Series X, it’s also the case that Microsoft has made some interesting competitive moves, buying up huge game studios like ZeniMax Media and even Activision Blizzard (thought the latter acquisition is still pending at time of writing).

This means that future blockbuster games from these studios — think the Fallout and Elder Scrolls series, plus Call of Duty and World of Warcraft — could soon be Microsoft exclusive.

However good the PS6 is, some players might be tempted by the Xbox alternative if that does happen. Luckily for Sony fans, PlayStation has been working on its own mergers and acquisitions, as well, picking up the Destiny developers from Bungie most recently.

With all of this going on, you can be that IP and franchises will be right at the core of the next generation of the so-called console wars, and Sony will have plenty of competition.