Planning to buy a PlayStation 6? It won’t arrive for a few more years

Artificial intelligence “eats” memory

The structural imbalance between the supply and demand for memory has created a crisis that many in the industry call “RAMmageddon”. Tech giants like Alphabet (Google), OpenAI and Meta are pouring hundreds of billions of dollars into building data centers for their AI models. Those centers require huge quantities of the most modern memory chips, especially HBM (High-Bandwidth Memory), which manufacturers like Samsung and Micron now produce as a priority because they bring higher profits. This has created a shortage of standard DRAM and NAND chips, key components for consoles, PCs and smartphones. Prices have exploded, with reports indicating that certain types of memory have risen by as much as 75 percent in just one month.

​- This is the most significant gap between supply and demand, both in magnitude and time horizon, that I have experienced in my 25 years in the industry – said Manish Bhatia, executive vice president of operations at Micron.

Sony is faced with an impossible choice

For Sony, this situation presents an almost insurmountable problem. According to unofficial information, the PlayStation 6 should be a significant technological leap, with a planned 30 GB of GDDR7 working memory, which is almost twice as much as the PlayStation 5. With current component prices, the launch of such a console in 2027 would mean that its retail price would have to be above $900 or around $1,000, which for the gaming market is console completely unacceptable.

An alternative is delaying the launch, which would extend the life cycle of the PlayStation 5 to a record eight or even nine years. It would be an unprecedented move for Sony, which has maintained a consistent rhythm of releasing a new generation every six to seven years since the release of the first PlayStation in 1994. A delay could seriously undermine a carefully constructed plan to maintain user engagement between hardware generations.

It’s not Nintendo, it’s not fair

The problem is not limited to Sony. Bloomberg states that Nintendo is also feeling the pressure of rising component prices and is reportedly considering raising the price of its new Switch 2 console during 2026. This confirms that the word about the crisis that affects the entire industry, not just one producer.

Microsoft could take advantage of the opportunity

While Sony grapples with the delay decision, reports suggest that Microsoft’s plan for the next Xbox console remains focused on 2027. If this happens, Microsoft could gain a key advantage of one to two years at the beginning of the new generation. Such a scenario puts Sony in an extremely unfavorable position, where it has to choose between an overpriced console that no one will buy and leaving the market to its biggest competitor.