A prominent video game industry analyst has asserted that the launch of the PlayStation 6 is now almost certainly bound for 2028 in the wake of new moves at Sony. As of today, Sony revealed that it would be ending its production of physical game discs for its PlayStation platforms beginning in January 2028. This decision is one that has been criticized by many fans, as it will push the PlayStation ecosystem into an all-digital format. Now, as a byproduct of this change, one analyst believes that it also means the PS6 now won’t launch next year as some have suggested.
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In a new write-up from Piers Harding-Rolls at Ampere, the analyst said that he strongly believes the PS6 will now arrive in 2028. Specifically, Harding-Rolls targeted late 2028 as the window in which the PS6 will hit the market. As for the nature of the console, Harding-Rolls added that the PS6 will likely not release with a disc drive, as PlayStation will have fully transitioned to its digital format by the time the hardware would become available. While it might sell a disc drive separately, as it has done with the PS5 in recent years, the removal of the disc drive from the standard edition of the PS6 would allow Sony to save money on manufacturing costs.
“We believe this almost certainly guarantees that the PS6 won’t arrive until 2028 at the earliest,” Harding-Rolls said. “Ampere’s current expectation is that the console will launch at the end of 2028. Second, at a minimum, the standard version of a PS6 will not include a physical media disc drive. Sony will be looking for all the ways it can reduce the cost of its next-gen console, and this is an easy win.”
Given Sony’s new timeline when it comes to the end of game discs being manufactured, it would make a lot of sense for the PS6 to not launch until 2028. If the PS6 somehow arrived in late 2027, this would mean that Sony would have to release physical discs for the launch lineup of games on the PS6. For it to then end the creation of PS6 discs merely a couple of months later would be jarring for both consumers and the brand. Instead, releasing the PlayStation 6 in 2028 allows Sony to kick off its next generation of hardware in a fully digital format, providing a bit of a clean transition from one platform to the next.
If the PS6 truly isn’t coming out until 2028, it also means that we could see the first stilted release for new Xbox and PlayStation platforms since the PS3 and Xbox 360 generation. Based on Xbox’s previous statement, it sounds as though its upcoming console, currently codenamed Project Helix, is set to launch in late 2027. While these plans could always change, if Xbox chooses to release its latest hardware next year with PlayStation following the year after, it would represent the first instance in which the two brands haven’t released new platforms opposite of one another in over 20 years.
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