PlayStation 6 rumors: everything we know about the PS6 so far

It sounds like we’re going to learn more about a next-generation PlayStation sooner rather than later.

In early 2024, Sony Senior Vice President Naomi Matsuoka told Bloomberg that, “Looking ahead, PS5 will enter the latter stage of its life cycle.” While he didn’t outright say that a PlayStation 6 is in the works, we can assume that the company is already looking ahead at its next console.

Despite there only being rumors to work with, it’s never to early to start speculating about the next-gen consoles. How will the PS6 compare to the PS5? Will any of the best games on PS5 make their way to the PS6? And what about upcoming PS5 games that are going to launch soon?

Nothing is set in stone, but let’s take a look at what the future of PlayStation may look like.

PS6 release date speculation

The biggest clue as to when a PS6 could come out, or at least may have been planned to at one point, points to 2027. This information comes from an official Microsoft court document as part of the Activision Blizzard acquisition: “By the time SIE launched the next generation of its PlayStation console (which is likely to occur around [redacted]), it would have lost access to Call of Duty.” The date is redacted here, but sleuths have connected the dots between this and the deal Microsoft offered Sony to keep Activision Blizzard games on PlayStation consoles until 2027. That would suggest that, at the earliest, Microsoft didn’t believe a new PlayStation would come before 2027.

If we look at past generations, that time frame falls in line with the life spans of past generations. The PlayStation 4 had seven years before the PS5 came out, and the PlayStation 3 was also around for seven years before its successor showed up. The PS5 launched in 2020, meaning 2027 would once again leave us with a seven-year console cycle. We wouldn’t put money on 2027 for sure, but anything from late 2027 onward feels like a safe bet.