Key PS6 details revealed - everything we know so far

The first key details of a PS6 console were revealed days after Sony announced a mid-generation update to the PS5 in the form of a PS5 Pro.

The very first mention of a new generation of consoles came as a result of Microsoft's $69billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

Court documents in 2023 during this purchase revealed Microsoft is planning for a brand new generation of its Xbox console to release by 2028. More recent rumours claim Xbox's next console could launch as soon as 2026.

Both Microsoft and Sony revealed mid-generation updates for their consoles in 2024 - Microsoft announced a special edition Xbox Series X and more digital options for Xbox Series X/S and Sony announced the PS5 Pro.

And according to a report from Reuters, the first details of the PS6 were revealed in September.

Sony recently revealed the PS5 Pro, a mid-generation update to the PS5 / Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc

The PS6 console will feature an AMD chip, like the PS5 and PS5 Pro, and not one from Intel despite negotiations taking place.

The report said AMD got the contract over Intel in 2022 with backwards compatibility being a key factor and claimed there was a dispute between Intel and Sony over how much money Intel would make from each chip sold.

It added: "Moving from AMD, which made the PlayStation 5 chip, to Intel would have risked backwards compatibility, which was a subject of discussion between Intel and Sony engineers and executives, the sources said.

"Ensuring backward compatibility with prior versions of the PlayStation would have been costly and taken engineering resources.

"Allowing PlayStation users to play games they have purchased for older systems is a feature Sony often includes in a next-generation system."

It's understood Sony is targeting a 2028 release window for the PS6.

An Intel spokesperson said: "We strongly disagree with this characterisation but are not going to comment about any current or potential customer conversations.

"We have a very healthy customer pipeline across both our product and foundry business, and we are squarely focused on innovating to meet their needs."

In November, according to hardware leaker zhangzhonghao, a reputable insider on Chiphell, the PS6 console will use AMD's next generation UDNA architecture.

The GPU will be the successor to AMD's RDNA 4 and CDNA as it looks to combine these two - RDNA 4 is partly used for enhanced ray-tracing (how light behaves) in the PS5 Pro console.

zhangzhonghao claims Radeon RX 9000 series will also use the UDNA GPU, along with the MI400, with the graphics cards expected to enter mass production in the second half of 2026, suggesting an earliest release window of late 2026.

The leaker adds it's not yet been decided if the console's CPU will be Zen 4 or Zen 5 and that the next generation portable will also use AMD hardware.

Sony and Broadcom did not respond to requests for comment in September and AMD declined to comment. Additional reporting from Reuters.

This article was first published on September 17 2024 and updated on March 10 2025.

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