Sony has said it has yet to decide when to launch the PlayStation 6, nor how much it will cost, as memory shortages continue to hit hard.
In an investor-focused Q&A meeting, Sony said it sold 1.5 million PS5 units in the fourth quarter ending March 31, 2026, down from the 2.8 million it sold the same quarter the previous year. That’s the worst quarter for PS5 sales since the console launched in November 2020.
PS5 is now near the 100 million sold mark (93.7 million), although it continues to lag behind the PS4. It’s worth remembering that PS4 had seen various price cuts at this point in its lifecycle, making it a compelling casual purchase. This generation, however, has swung the other way. Sony raised the price of the PS5 by $100 in the U.S. earlier this year, making it even more expensive to buy a new console.
All this comes as the PS5 nears its sixth birthday, and with the launch of guaranteed system seller GTA 6 in November getting ever closer. GTA 6 launches on console only, and is expected to drive a surge of hardware sales despite recent price increases. The question for Sony and Microsoft is whether they can capitalize on GTA 6’s launch by having enough consoles to meet demand. Sony’s projections for the PS5 in the current financial year are based on the volume of memory it can secure at “reasonable prices,” the company added.
Sony, it seems, does not expect a big GTA 6 bump, forecasting annual sales at its gaming business down 6% to 4.42 trillion yen (approx. $28 billion) due to lower hardware sales. However, it expects gaming profit to rise 30% due to higher first-party software sales, and the absence of a huge impairment loss it recorded against struggling Marathon developer Bungie. Insomniac’s Wolverine game is due out this financial year, and will surely make a significant contribution to Sony’s performance.
Interestingly, Sony said its profit forecast incorporates investment in its “next-generation platform,” which we of course expect to be PS6.
During the Q&A, Sony boss Hiroki Totoki said various factors were impacting the cost of consoles, but insisted that Sony has enough materials to see it through the rest of 2026. It’s still working out what to do with PS6, Totoki added, because memory prices are expected to remain high during the 2027 financial year. Demand for PlayStation gaming remains strong, Totoki said, with a growing number of active users on the platform, so the company has a certain amount of breathing room before it has to introduce the next console.
Perhaps the most interesting line from the Q&A was the suggestion that Sony is looking at new business models and products to deal with the memory situation. It’s hard to know what this could involve, exactly, but it’s worth noting that Sony is heavily rumored to be working on a cheaper handheld PlayStation 6.
It’s also worth noting recent reports that Sony may have to delay the release of the PS6 to 2028 or even 2029 as a result of the AI-fueled chip crisis. In January, an analyst report suggested that Sony may push the launch of the PS6 beyond 2028 and lengthen the PS5 lifecycle. David Gibson, senior analyst at MST international who focuses on game and tech companies, predicted that “rising memory prices will not impact short-term performance thanks to Sony’s existing inventory.” However, he noted that increased memory costs could become an issue for Sony in the next fiscal year (ending in March 2027), saying “Sony might pass future cost increases onto consumers.”
Microsoft, meanwhile, has gone ahead and announced Project Helix, its next-gen Xbox console, although it isn’t expected to launch for some time.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].
