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Sep 11, 2026·Soleback Team
The memory market is holding the calendar. What Totoki said, what the PS5 costs now and what remains unknown
Soleback Team
In a Wall Street Journal interview published 17 August 2026, Sony CEO Hiroki Totoki confirmed there is still no fixed release date for the PS6
The reason is the memory market: prices are expected to stay very high through the whole of fiscal year 2027
Sony says it will not sell next-generation hardware at a significant loss, and analysts read that as $900 to $1,000
The standard PS5 now costs $649.99 and €649.99 following the increase of 2 April 2026
The company is weighing different scenarios, including a change of business model
Two statements are worth separating, because coverage tends to merge them.
In the August interview with the Wall Street Journal, Totoki mostly discussed Sony's pivot from consumer electronics towards entertainment, which now accounts for roughly two thirds of company revenue. The console came up around a question on global component shortages and trade wars. That is where the line about needing to act or not surviving in this landscape appeared, and where the paper noted that internally no PS6 launch date has been fixed.
The line about pricing comes from May instead, from the earnings call: Sony had decided neither timing nor prices, and wanted to observe the situation. The August interview matters precisely because nothing has moved in three months.
Chipmakers have redirected capacity towards high-margin parts for AI data centres, leaving consumer electronics in the queue. Estimates of the price increase vary by source and period, but land in the range of five to six times within a year.
Sony assumes prices will stay very high across fiscal 2027 because supply will remain tight. Memory makers are already investing in new capacity, but meaningful relief is not expected before 2027, and on some analyses not until early 2028.
For the console itself that carries technical consequences. Leaks pointed to 30GB of GDDR7 against 16GB in the PS5, and part of the reporting suggests Sony is weighing a cut to 24GB rather than pushing the launch back further.
Current supply is not affected for now. Sony has confirmed memory reserves for the rest of the year, which matters ahead of the GTA 6 launch in November.
Consoles usually get cheaper in the back half of a cycle. The PS5 has done the opposite, twice. The increase was announced on 27 March 2026 and took effect on 2 April, attributed to sustained pressure in the global economic environment.
Where things stand after the latest rise:
PS5 with disc drive: $649.99 and €649.99, against $499.99 at launch in 2020 and $549.99 in August 2025
PS5 Digital: $599.99 and €599.99, against $399.99 at launch and $499.99 in August 2025
PS5 Pro: $899.99 and €899.99, against $749.99 in August 2025
Two figures worth keeping apart, because they get conflated. The standard PS5 costs $150 more than on release day, which is 30 percent more than in 2020. Over the past year alone, counting from $549.99, the rise is 18 percent. Either way it is unusual at this point in a console's life.
Sony said in June that it does not intend to sell next-generation hardware at a significant loss. Analysts read that as $900 to $1,000, with some treating $1,000 as the floor rather than the ceiling. Sony has neither confirmed nor denied those figures.
Similar forecasts apply to the next Xbox, known by the codename Project Helix. The same memory market weighs on both companies.
Analysts pointed to late 2027 for a long time. The component shortage has pushed those expectations out, and Bloomberg reported in February on a delay under consideration to 2028 or even 2029.
More significant than the date is a different remark: Totoki spoke about running various simulations, including changing the business model. That carries more weight than a one-year delay.
Facts and inferences are worth separating.
Sony has announced that from January 2028 it will stop producing physical discs for new PlayStation games. The common inference is that the PS6 will ship without a drive, but that is a logical consequence, not an official announcement. Sony has not confirmed the specifications, has not confirmed the absence of a drive, and has not addressed backwards compatibility with physical libraries.
What is certain is that the largest company in this industry is publicly admitting it does not control its own release calendar.
No date has been fixed. Analysts pointed to late 2027, expectations have drifted out, and Bloomberg has written about 2028 or 2029.
Sony has not given a price. Analysts estimate $900 to $1,000, based on the company's position that it will not sell hardware at a significant loss.
Demand from AI data centres has absorbed memory production capacity. Sony expects very high prices across the whole of fiscal 2027.
$649.99 and €649.99 with a drive, $599.99 for the Digital and $899.99 for the Pro, following the 2 April 2026 increase.
Sony has neither confirmed nor denied it. Disc production for new games ends in January 2028, which many treat as an indication.
Sony has confirmed memory reserves for the rest of the year.
The next reference point is Sony's coming earnings call and whether the answer on PS6 timing lands identically again. Until then the PS5 remains the only PlayStation on sale, at post-April prices.
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