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Recent comments from Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Hideaki Nishino have suggested PlayStation may move towards more hybrid, Switch-like consoles in the future to match modern on-the-go players.
Speaking to Famitsu in a special interview marking the Japanese game magazine’s 40th anniversary, Nishino briefly touched upon future Sony hardware.
In reference to his 2024 comment that hardware won’t be disappearing any time soon, Nishino was asked whether Sony’s PlayStation brand would continue to focus on consoles. Nishino gave an affirmative answer: “My belief that a console is necessary for playing games hasn’t changed,” he said, adding that Sony “wants to continue providing its own game consoles.”
Nishino also mentioned that he thinks “pick up and play” is the most important quality for consoles nowadays. He said that developing new game console experiences will involve “leveraging technologies that can be used in various forms and locations” and that this would enable Sony “to create something exciting.”
“For example, although the PlayStation brand is strongly associated with playing on the TV in the living room, we’re planning to release monitors and speakers so that people can play comfortably in other locations as well,” Nishino said. “We developed the PlayStation Portal as part of this initiative.”
Of course, Sony has taken the PlayStation brand away from the TV many times before, going back to the portable screen for the PSone in the early 2000s and the Japan-only Pocketstation. Then there’s the Sony PSP and PSVita handhelds, Playstation VR, and the aforementioned PS5 companion handheld PlayStation Portal.
Back in November 2025, Sony officially launched cloud streaming on PlayStation Portal, which Nishino flagged as an important feature for the handheld. While remote play allows you to stream games directly from your PS5, cloud streaming allows you to bypass the PS5. This means you can give your console a rest, or let someone else use your PS5, either to play a game with you or do something else entirely. Nishino noted that “players seem to be comfortable using cloud streaming, and numbers are increasing at very good momentum. For example, the number of users in January 2026 was 1.5 times that of December 2025.”
With Playstation Portal, Nishino said Sony took on the challenge to create a device that would offer a new kind of gameplay experience. “We were thinking, ‘Let’s try this, let’s try that,’ and I’d like us to move forward with developing products while exploring various ideas in this way.”
Nishino added that while he believes games will continue to be one of the “essential sources of entertainment” for people in the future, lifestyles continue to change and that meeting these needs is a challenge for hardware developers to tackle.
Nishino also reiterated Sony’s recent altered stance on PC releases. Last week, Sony nixed PC releases from descriptions of its launch strategy for first-party titles. Sony’s new main stance is that it will focus on PS5-exclusive releases for first party single-player games, with live service titles likely to head to both PS5 and PC to bolster the playerbase. Nishino noted that Sony will continue to make platform choices on a per-game basis, releasing on PC in cases where that would “maximize the gaming experience.”
What exactly the PS6 will be has fueled gossip for a while, with rumors of a Switch-like dockable console, or even a console with a separate handheld. However, whatever the PS6 ends up being, it’s likely to come with an expensive price tag. With Valve’s Steam Machine recently triggering shocked reactions for its $1,050 starting price, memory manufacturers suggest rising costs could also see next generation consoles like the PS6 exceed the $1,000 mark, and Sony may push back the console’s release to avoid such high pricing.
This isn’t the first PS6 handheld tease, either. Last year, Moore’s Law Is Dead reported on an unannounced PS6 handheld that would be dockable and backwards compatible with PS4 and PS5 games. There was also a brief mention of what was described as a PS6 S, which sounded like it could be to the PS6 what the Xbox Series S is to the Xbox Series X. If true, you’d assume it would be a cheaper option.
Verity Townsend is a Japan-based freelance writer who previously served as editor, contributor and translator for the game news site Automaton West. She has also written about Japanese culture and movies for various publications.
