In light of rumors and analyst predictions about Sony potentially pushing the release of the PS6 back to beyond 2027, a new report by Bloomberg has indicated that the memory shortage has hit the company harder than previously believed. According to the publication, Sony, as well as Nintendo, are paying close attention to RAM prices, and that the former is planning to push the PS6’s launch to either 2028 or 2029.
Citing “people familiar with the company’s thinking,” the report has noted that this move would be a major change in Sony’s console launch strategy that had been designed to sustain user engagement. Similarly, Nintendo might be looking at raising the price of the Switch 2 later this year. Unfortunately, neither company has offered any comments on this.
The possibility of Sony and rival console-maker Microsoft changing their previously-planned 2027 release windows for next-gen hardware first came about last month. According to Insider Gaming’s Tom Henderson, there have been “ongoing talks at the high levels” about the current state of the memory market and exorbitant RAM prices.
Sony could be hit by current memory prices particularly hard since the PS6 is rumored to feature 30 GB of GDDR7 RAM in its home console SKU, and 24 GB of GDDR7 RAM in the handheld SKU. The RAM is said to be split across 3 GB modules, capable of transfer speeds of up to 32 GB/s. All combined with the 160-bit memory bus indicates that the PS6 would feature bandwidth of around 640 GB/s. More recently, rumors have indicated that the next-gen console’s GPU will not be fully based on AMD’s current-gen RDNA 5 architecture.
As for Nintendo, company president Shuntaro Furukawa had spoken about keeping an eye on the state of memory prices, as well as other international factors, like the trade tariffs imposed by the US. In an interview from last month, he also confirmed that, at least for now, Nintendo hasn’t been hit with memory shortages since it had already procured the needed hardware.
“Hardware profitability depends on factors like component procurement conditions, cost reductions through mass production, and the impact of exchange rates and tariffs,” Furukawa said. “It’s difficult to generalize. Fundamentally, we aim to address this by advancing component procurement over the medium to long term.”
However, whether or not this might result in the price of the Switch 2 going up any time soon is still unknown. “We procure from suppliers based on our medium- to long-term business plans, but the current memory market is very volatile,” he said. “There is no immediate impact on earnings, but it is something we must monitor closely.”
US trade tariffs have also been quite noteworthy, with Furukawa saying that the company’s global policy has been to see tariffs as a “cost” that can be passed down to the consumer through the product’s pricing.
“This is a crucial period for our game business as we promote the adoption of new hardware and maintain the momentum of our platforms,” he said. “We are working on this while carefully considering the situation.”
Interestingly, even Valve has been hit by the memory shortages, with the company revealing that it had to delay the Steam Machine’s launch due to RAM prices.
