Sony’s PlayStation 6 Price Is Set To Surpass $1000, As RAM and SSD Costs Have Risen Over $680 - Wccftech
However, it's looking like fewer and fewer gamers will be able to afford the next-generation system at launch, as it's now almost assured it will cost more than $1000 due to just its RAM and SSD costs having risen very close to $700, a figure that's higher than the already high prices of current-generation systems. As terrible as the reveal of a $680 cost for the PlayStation 6 RAM and SSD is, it does give us data upon which it is possible to speculate how much RAM and how much storage the system will have. As delaying the system would cost far more than launching it at a high price, the PlayStation 6 is almost certainly making it to market in late 2027, early 2028 at the latest, and its high price is almost certainly going to lead to the longest cross-generation period we have ever seen.
Despite current market conditions that make it very challenging to launch a new gaming system, as we have seen with Valve's Steam Machine, Sony is reportedly still targeting a late 2027 release for the PlayStation 6. However, it's looking like fewer and fewer gamers will be able to afford the next-generation system at launch, as it's now almost assured it will cost more than $1000 due to just its RAM and SSD costs having risen very close to $700, a figure that's higher than the already high prices of current-generation systems.
"RAM + NAND alone is over $680," said known leaker KeplerL2 on the NeoGAF forums, suggesting that the PlayStation 6's bill of materials has likely already pushed past the $1000 threshold, as the cost of other components is not factored into this figure. As such, the system is almost certainly going to cost more than $1000 and obviously sell fewer units than any of its predecessors at launch, as the leaker themselves highlighted by liking another post on the forums.
The tragic rise of component costs that are going to push the PlayStation 6 and the Xbox Project Helix higher than anyone expected is made even more tragic by how much RAM cost when Sony and Microsoft started designing the consoles' SoCs. "When they started designing the console SoCs, GDDR7 was projected to hit $3 per GB," KeplerL2 said. Nowadays, GDDR7 costs roughly $20 to $23 per GB.
As terrible as the reveal of a $680 cost for the PlayStation 6 RAM and SSD is, it does give us data upon which it is possible to speculate how much RAM and how much storage the system will have. At current prices, there's little doubt the system won't have less than 24GB of RAM if Sony is planning to focus more on storage with a 3TB or 4TB SSD, which is the most unlikely scenario looking at previous systems.
The most probable configuration for the PlayStation 6 to run games at 4K resolution and have reasonable storage for modern games that often take up well over 100GB is 32GB RAM and a 2TB SSD, especially if Sony launches the system as a digital-only console, which is extremely likely considering plans to sunset disc production starting in early 2028. However, the company may also opt for 40 GB RAM and 1 TB storage, a configuration that was heavily rumored in the past.
Still, speculation loses its fun when we are looking at these high prices. As delaying the system would cost far more than launching it at a high price, the PlayStation 6 is almost certainly making it to market in late 2027, early 2028 at the latest, and its high price is almost certainly going to lead to the longest cross-generation period we have ever seen.
About the author: Francesco De Meo has been covering video games and technology since 2012, starting his career at small outlets like Gamersyndrome and GeekSnack. After joining Wccftech gaming section in 2015, he quickly expanded his video gaming coverage with in-depth reporting, interviews with iconic industry figures such as Grasshopper Manufacture founder and No More Heroes creator Goichi "Suda51" Suda, Resident Evil series creator Shinji Mikami, Team NINJA's president and Nioh series director Fumihiko Yasuda, and Silent Hill creator Keiichiro Toyama, reviews and on-the-ground coverage of major industry events such as Gamescom and E3. When he's not reporting or reviewing, Francesco can be found playing the genres he loves most, spending time with his six cats, reading, writing music, playing guitar and drumming for his progressive rock band.
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