PS6 may not arrive until 2028 or 2029, Embracer Group report suggests

If you were planning to buy a PlayStation 6 in 2027, you may want to hold off — and not by choice. Swedish gaming conglomerate Embracer Group flagged in its June 2026 annual report that unnamed analysts no longer expect Sony's next console to launch that year, pushing the likely window to 2028 or even 2029. That aligns with a Bloomberg report from earlier this year and a candid admission from Sony president Hiroki Totoki that the company itself isn't certain when PS6 will ship.

The RAM problem

The culprit is a memory market in crisis. AI companies have been buying up DRAM — the fast memory used in both servers and consumer electronics — at a pace that's squeezed supply for everything else. By 2026, data centers are expected to consume roughly 70% of global DRAM production, per IDC. RAM prices jumped around 90% between Q4 2025 and Q1 2026 alone, with analysts forecasting another 70% rise through the rest of the year. The shortage is not expected to ease before 2027, and some forecasts push relief further into 2028.

Sony reportedly wants to keep the PS6's manufacturing cost as low as possible at launch — a standard playbook for consoles, where hardware is often sold near cost with profit made on software and subscriptions. But that strategy falls apart when key components are expensive and unpredictable. Locking in a launch window means locking in a price, and right now neither is feasible.

Wider ripple effects

The same supply crunch has already pushed up prices on existing hardware. The PS5, Nintendo Switch 2, and Xbox Series X|S have all seen price increases this year. Valve has repeatedly delayed the Steam Machine, though it has promised a release before the end of summer.

For PS5 owners, a delay isn't necessarily bad news — it means a longer tail of supported games and less pressure to upgrade immediately. For developers, it's more complicated: an extended PS5 cycle risks spreading resources across generations for longer than planned, potentially blunting the impact of PS6 exclusives whenever the console does arrive.

Sony has not officially confirmed any delay. Until it does, the 2028–29 window remains an analyst projection, not a roadmap. But with component costs still climbing, the pressure is real.