- Sony plans to stop physical production of games by January 2028
- Analysts say the announcement indicates that the PS6 will arrive in 2028
- It is predicted that the console will not have a disc drive
Following Sony’s announcement that it will stop production of physical games in the next two years, analysts determined that the next-generation PS6 console will launch in 2028.
According to Ampere analyst Piers Harding-Rolls, PlayStation’s all-digital plan “conveys quite a bit of information about Sony’s plans for its next-generation console, the PlayStation 6,” including a release window.
“We think this almost certainly guarantees that the PS6 won’t arrive until 2028 at the earliest,” he predicted, adding that “the current expectation is that the console will launch in late 2028.”
Harding-Rolls also suggests that “at a minimum,” the standard version of the PS6 won’t have a physical media drive because Sony will look for ways to reduce the cost of its next-generation hardware, and “this is an easy win.”
“An additional disc drive may be available to play older PS4 and PS5 games on disc,” the analyst added.
“Removing the drive will upset some gamers who don’t want to pay for an additional disk drive (if available) and who want to access their game collections on disk. It may be too impractical or too complex, but some process of transferring older physical media to a digital license could alleviate some of these problems.”
It is not yet known if the PS6 will be a console like the PS5; However, recent comments from Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Hideaki Nishino seem to suggest that the next-generation PlayStation console could be a handheld.
Nishino said: “For the next-generation platform, rather than simply serving as an alternative to PCs, we aim to deliver unique PlayStation value,” which would include “technological advancements but also an expansion of usage styles, enabling a seamless experience that can be enjoyed naturally beyond the living room.”
New reports have claimed that Microsoft is also moving away from physical media.
The company is said to be testing a disc-to-digital feature for existing consoles and could release a next-generation Project Helix console without a disc drive.
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