An editorial that speaks about the future of the gaming headed towards our way. Let's explore the possibilities and many more that we can achieve.
AMD has mentioned that the next-gen Xbox is on track for release in 2027, which means we might be in the final year of the Series X|S.
They might think taking a crack at the PC/console hybrid approach might work out for them... but with PS6 delayed until 2029 at least, there went the power advantage that paying all that extra money was supposed to afford them once PS6 does launch. Also, releasing a console right now is stupid with RAM prices as high as they are. Either we're gonna be forking out $1200-1500 for this thing, or it's going to get downgraded. It costs over $700 to put 64GB of RAM into a PC right now because all the AI datacenters are buying up ALL the RAM.
Maybe a select few gamers will be willing to fork out that much $ for a system that is more powerful than PS5 Pro, but most gamers are only just now feeling like PS5 is hitting its stride and still has a few years of life left in it before we need to move on to a new generation. Plus, by the time PS6 does launch, RAM prices will be stablizing, so PS6 will be able to put much more of its overall budget towards a more powerful GPU and CPU vs. having to spend such a large chunk of the budget just on RAM like the new Xbox will, assuming it does drop next year while still in the midst of this RAM crisis.
People said the same thing about xbox 360 launching early but it turned out pretty good. Microsoft's R&D is much larger and more cash rich than Sony's. They have the money to do it. One of the reason Sony is waiting because they arent ready to spend billions more on hardware and the PS5 is still selling and that would definitely hurt their sales. Plus they just released Ps5 pro.
The series x isn't selling well so for Microsoft its a good time to get ready for next gen. The next console from xbox is gonna be for core gamers and no matter when sony launches it probably wont have many advances over Magnus if any at all. Im confident it will be on par or better than the next Playstation. Even the series x does features that ps5 or the pro still cant do. Sony shouldn't of released the PS5 pro. Imo its not needed and underwhelming. They could of used what they spent on that for the PS6
First, no one actually said that PS6 is delayed.
The rumor started with Tom Henderson saying he thought PlayStation might consider delaying the PS6 due to RAM prices. He specifically did not say that he heard that they were going to delay it or anything like that, it was 100% speculation, and he never implied otherwise.
That said, let them delay it, the PS5 Pro especially with FSR 4 coming in the next month or so, will be more than sufficient. There isn't going to be any publishers, including Microsoft, willing to skip PlayStation's user base, especially when publishers seem eager to put games on Switch 2 which is a significant step down even from the base PS5. So, the idea that having more power is really going to shift things in their favor is extremely hard to believe.
Microsoft can make as many consoles as they want, the issue is convincing people to buy them.
Both the PS5 and the Switch 2 sold double the amount of consoles in December that the SX sold in the entire year of 2025. And I doubt that a super expensive co-pilot box is going to help them, especially if you look at the lackluster sales AI equipped PC's have seen.
The next Xbox issaid to have 36 GB of memory so the price short from ram should not be as apocalyptic as a 64 GB kit. With the PS6 coming in with 30 GB, the RAM should not be what makes the Xbox cost so much more. Of course without Microsoft subsidizing the console the actual MSRPs may diverge wildly.
32GB of DDR5 still costs in the neighborhood of $250-300 for the super cheap stuff, $450 for the name brand. That's what entire consoles used to cost. That eats up a huge chunk of the budget that was supposed to be paying for the CPU and GPU, which means that the cost of this system will be driven farther north than previously anticipated, and it was already expected to be above $1k. Releasing a console in the middle of an industry-wide RAM shortage is stupid. Even GPU makers are scaling back production because of it, and focusing their remaining stock and production towards selling to datacenters. Some memory manufacturers have dropped consumer products entirely and now only make chips for datacenters. Nvidia is scaling back its consumer GPUs, no longer offering the super series of some GPUs, for instance.
For MS to pull the trigger now means releasing at a very risky price point against a PS5 that is simply on fire, even outselling the Switch 2 in many cases. It's coming at a time where the Xbox brand is at its weakest ever, and consumer confidence in the brand is at absolute rock bottom. Nobody wants to drop $1500 on an Xbox when they can play the same games on their PS5 Pro for half the price already, or even cheaper if using a base PS5. Only a select few enthusiasts will bother to fork out that kind of money... by the time this product reaches a price point where it can have mass-market appeal, the PS6 will be dropping... but by that time, RAM prices will be dropping, so PS6 will now be able to, assuming it does delay until 2029, invest more into upgrading its architecture over the previously released spec, invest in more RAM than the new Xbox will have, a better CPU & GPU, etc.
As for nobody saying PS6 will launch in 2029, nobody said it would come sooner either, not officially, at least. As of now all we have to go by are rumors based on internal information that could easily change at a moment's notice. Even the design of the chip itself could change as it has not yet entered into production. They could easily opt to include a few more CUs, more RAM, more CPU cores, etc. between now and when it does officially enter production. So, MS could drop a new Xbox now, but it wouldn't be wise, at all, for them to do so if they plan on even holding a candle agains the juggernaut that will be PS6. PS5 will most likely mop the floor with it due to its price point alone.
And that's assuming MS even gives the green light to start manufacturing the console to begin with. We'll see in the coming months if production even happens. Microsoft's shareholders damn sure aren't going to be willing to subsidize anything at all after they just dumped $100b into buying game publishers, expecting to see a ROI, and not seeing it anywhere near as fast as they'd hoped, which is why we're now playing Xbox games on PS5.
As for MS sitting on RAM, they are sitting on some, but Xbox is sitting on none. Microsoft knows good and well they will make far more money putting that RAM into datacenters than they ever would putting it into a console that is already at a huge disadvantage before it even launches, and has little hope of generating a lot of sales.
It'll end up being a Windows based machine that utilizes an Xbox ecosystem as well to play their game library on. But you'll end up being able to buy games from places like Steam as well more than likely.
Would make the most sense honestly. Best of both worlds.
Microsoft should just ditch Xbox and cash in on PC and PlayStation games, maybe even Switch 2. Apparently, they make a loss on hardware, so what's the point?
Some people never learn, and others are destined to learn the hard way, that's how.
What's meant to be will always find a way. The next xbox is gonna happen no matter how much fanboys are still wishing for its death. The core fans will always be there.
What Xbox was is dead. Long live Xbox. I mean Halo and fable are coming to PlayStation this year. Gears and forza are already there. I'm here for it. I will absolutely give MS publishing my money if they make good games.
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Sony will look to extend the PS5 lifecycle for longer, it’s claimed.
My guess is that Sony will release the PS6 in the fall of 2029. There are a lot of people that are currently playing on PS4 and have not upgraded to a PS5 yet.
This also means fewer cross-gen games, more time to develop games for the hardware targets they've already made, and more time to add in more powerful hardware that will create an even bigger generational leap than we would have got if it released next year.
1. No it doesn't mean fewer cross-gen titles, when there's now even more time for current gen to grow userbase
2. It especially doesn't mean more powerful hardware, when the reason for the delay is price of chips and RAM
"Everything is at a premium, let's make our expensive new console even more powerful and even more expensive, and make more games exclusive to this more expensive system to minimize profits in every way possible!"
We may be reaching a point where a 10+ year lifecycle is the right amount. So much is focusing on chasing Unreal Demos and not enough on actually putting out optimized games that don't constantly need updates for the first two years. Stop giving developers too much to keep up with as far as technology is concerned and dev times will shrink naturally as well as result in fewer issues. The industry grew exponentially up until last generation. Now we're on the downward slope of gains until some whole new technology breaks the entire mold and causes a complete rebalance of what we've been doing for almost 3 decades.
Speaking absolute nonsense. PS6 hardware is pretty much set in stone this year due to contracts with AMD and ram production. They do this to calculate pricing and manufacturing. Nothing will change if we wait till 2030 for PS6.
2027 GOTY Awards will give a trailer and then spring 2028 will be the launch.
It's a strange article because Sony already said last year that this console was only halfway through it's cycle and that the PS6 won't be out soon.
Then there were rumors of what was going into the PS6 as of it were imminent. And articles about it coming out in the next few years.
And now Sony has to repeat that PS6 is not coming out soon. I don't know how that is a "delay."
That's good. Devs have barely begun to really push the boundaries of the consoles, especially the Pro. I'm happy to wait a little while longer, hopefully prices for components will have come back down to earth by then as well.
especially the pro.... they havent even hit the limits of the base 5. At least when the 4 pro came out the base 4 was starting to struggle here and there. hence the release of the 4 pro. 5 pro could have held off all together.
The ps5pro released at the right time, with more time (say late 2028, early 2029) and data PSSR will have more time to mature in advance of the ps6.
This would be good news. This generation has way more in the tank and a 2027 console drop would simply feel like more of the same and not a jump. I'm all for 2029.
Good, I don't want a PS6 yet. This generation needs to last longer to make up for longer development times and delays.
Good.
The gen needs more time for devs to take full advantage of the capabilities of the PS5.
It’ll be interesting to see what MS will make of this though.
The next-gen Xbox will offer a "powerful experience", and will enable players to "take their library with them", according to Xbox president.
I'd bet good money it'll be Play Anywhere titles and cloud streaming for the rest. Basically what is available now. I think they lack the business case and commitment to get Xbox console games working on it natively.
Yeah, I'm with you on that.
Technically, it shouldn’t be hard to make Xbox games run on PC. But there’s just not enough rea$$$on for them to do it.
Actually, ignore my last post.
There is a huge rea$$on that I forgot. Currently, the Xbox Windows App and the Microsoft Store take a much lower revenue share from third-party releases. Since 2021, it's only 12%, compared to the 30% they get on Xbox (the industry standard). So they do actually have a motive to push Xbox versions of the games instead.
Of course, they could also simply change that revenue split at any moment, but I assume that wouldn’t go over well with developers, who generally already don’t like their store.
@vits, yeah the percentages are under their control. I imagine part of agreeing to a Play Anywhere license is unifying that percentage regardless of what version of the Xbox store the game was purchased on, but I'm just speculating.
Granted only a small % of their library is Play Anywhere
Depends where you buy the game. If it's from the xbox store, it'll be the console version. Steam or Windows the PC version.
Play anywhere works for select titles but it's highly limited in terms of saturation.
Many many thrid party games do not have play anywhere functionality.
Translation layer seems viable for series and one with emulation for 360 and lower
I just hope they don't lean on cloud as a solution
This will just mean games will work on the console and on PC / Handheld. It 100% does not mean access to your Steam library on an xbox console which will never happen.
If at that point you're buying Xbox hardware then you're a complete idiot. Just buy a Steam Machine or a laptop or make yourself a PC to your needs and rid yourself of having to deal with MS outside of having to deal with Windows.
Nothing wrong with xbox hardware. Some people still prefer the console experience. Now we can have both with one machine. Im excited to see what it can do.👍
and I think you'll end up being really happy with what MS delivers in their next console. But I suspect it'll become niche, but that doesn't matter, it'll be supported and the hardcore xbox fans will enjoy it I think. But I would suggest not buying any more game from Xbox stores, only start buying from Steam because Xbox days are numbered and everyone knows it. Better start building your Steam library sooner rather than later.
