Former PlayStation boss Shawn Layden said he thinks innovation at Sony shouldn’t come “from making a PS6 for $1,200″ but from making “another PS5 for $300.”
As tech costs skyrocket and rumors of pricey gaming consoles swirl, the former president and CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment America took the time on The Trophy Room podcast to encourage the PlayStation maker to consider an unexpected, cheaper course of action. Pointing out how previous hardware leaps have typically offered clearly identifiable innovative qualities from generation to generation, he touched on why the PlayStation 6 simply leaning on “more ray tracing and more teraflops” might not be the best idea.
As Layden put it, “I think we have enough power in the machine.”
“The innovation needs to come not from making PS6 for $1,200. It’s to make another PS5 for $300,” he added. “Now, that would be true innovation. This is the first platform that I’ve seen that has gone up in price over time. I mean, PS2, at the end of the PS2 era, it was $99. You could buy a PS2 for $99.”
The PS5 launched almost exactly six years ago with two primary options for players to choose from: a base version with a disc drive for $499, and a Digital Edition for $399. What seemed like relatively fair price points in 2020 now seems almost like a steal thanks to a series of price increases in recent years. Today, buying a base PS5 directly from PlayStation costs $649, a Digital Edition costs $599, and a Pro costs an unbelievable $899 (up $200 from its reveal price). Things get even worse when you look at retailers like GameStop.
Sony has put the blame on “continued pressures in the global economic landscape,” but that’s done little to lessen the sting for the average buyer. As console sales for Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo suffer, Layden is of the mind that Sony shouldn’t be looking for a way to get to a likely more expensive future but instead a cheaper past.
“I think if I were in their shoes, that’s what I’d be doing. I’d be trying to find a way to get the cost down on the 5,” he added.
Later, he continued: “It’s a hard place to be right now, I think. What the company needs to do is do what it’s never done, which is, don’t iterate the console. Make it smaller, make it cheaper, do all the things you can around that, but the silicon’s fine, the OS is fine. It’s more than enough power to build the kind of games all of us want to play.”
If you look at the raw console release timeline, we’re just about due for the next PlayStation, but many players say they don’t want to see a PS6 announced until hardware prices come down. In May, Sony said it was still trying to decide when its next console should launch. It followed a February report that stated the company was considering pushing the device to 2028 – or even 2029 – following previous 2027 launch expectations.
For now, however, we know distressingly little about the PS6. As PlayStation continues battling the backlash against its decision to kill physical discs, one leaker has said RAM and storage for the console alone could cost as much as $680. Meanwhile, an October patent suggested Sony may be looking into taking advantage of its own take on frame generation. How much the PS6 will cost when all is said and done is a mystery, but the future isn’t looking particularly bright.
Michael Cripe is a freelance writer with IGN. He’s best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).
