Sony has not decided when it will launch the PlayStation 6 or what the new console will cost, chief financial officer Hiroki Totoki said on Friday as the company warned that rising component costs could complicate its next platform plans.
Totoki said Sony expects memory prices to remain very high in FY 2027 because supply is still tight, adding that the company has secured the materials it needs for the rest of calendar year 2026. He said Sony will consider changing business models to find the best strategy for the ps6. The comments came as Sony reported that income should be flat year on year because of higher investment in the next-generation platform.
The uncertainty lands as Sony’s current console generation continues to sell, but not at the pace of the previous one. Sony said it sold about 1.5 million PlayStation 5 consoles in the three months ended March 31, bringing lifetime PS5 sales to 93.7 million. That is still below the PS4’s comparable quarter, when the older console sold 2.6 million units, leaving PS5 sales slightly behind the PS4 when launch-aligned.
Totoki tried to push back on the idea that demand is fading. “So it’s not that the demand has gone down,” he said, pointing instead to the role of price and supply. Sony has said the PS5 has faced a much higher price point and launch shortages than its predecessor, and company questions on the call were dominated by global component shortages and recent PS5 price increases.
The pressure is not limited to Sony’s console business. The company reported a $765 million impairment loss related to Bungie, underscoring the cost of trying to balance hardware investment, game development and a platform roadmap that is still being shaped. Earlier this year, David Gibson of MST Financial said Sony’s PS5 lifecycle would likely be extended and that the ps6 could arrive later than many had expected, a view that now looks closer to Sony’s own tone.
Sony also said the number of active users on PlayStation platforms continues to grow, giving it a larger base even as the next console remains undefined. For now, the most important number is not the launch date Sony has not picked, but the cost pressure it says it has to manage before it does.
