PS6 Will Be $200 Cheaper To Produce Than Next-Gen Xbox, Tech Insider Says

Published Oct 21, 2026, 10:12 AM EDT James Lucas is an Executive Editor at TheGamer who has worked in professional journalism since 2018. A Newcastle University graduate with a degree in Journalism, Media, and Culture, they have written hundreds of guides, news stories, and original reports, with bylines in IGN, NME, GaymingMag, and VG247, sourcing interviews with studio heads, legendary industry figures, prominent actors, and more. An expert on FPS games, Soulslikes, RPGs, and survival horror, James has intimate knowledge of a wide variety of titles, providing in-depth coverage and exclusive profiles. Some of the games they have extensively covered include: Half-Life, Counter-Strike, Elden Ring, and Fallout. They pride themselves on their consistently thorough research, leveraging nearly a decade of industry experience. You can reach them at James.t@thegamer.com It was recently reported that next-gen Xbox consoles may retail somewhere between $1,200 and $1,800 unless Microsoft subsidizes the cost, which brings into question what will happen across the aisle at Sony. According to reputable tech insider Kepler, "PS6 [bill of materials] is approximately $200 lower." While that might sound reassuring, it would mean that the PS6 still costs $1,000 to $1,600 to manufacture. There's no guarantee that Sony will sell the console at a loss, and that figure is before tax and other additional costs, so it would likely be even higher for the consumer. To put in perspective what kind of leap we might see at major retailers, the PS5 Pro's official MSRP is $899, but Walmart sells the same hardware for $1,649 — a $750 bump. A console that breaks the $1,000 ceiling with its official MSRP will be ludicrously expensive at major retailers, but as Kepler explained, consoles take years to design, and nobody at Sony or Microsoft could have predicted the AI boom that sent component prices skyrocketing. "People really need to understand that designing a console is a 5+ year process," Kepler said. "Sony and MS never intended to release consoles for over $1K. There was just no way they possibly could have expected RAM/NAND prices to go up by 5x." Expect The Lines Between Generations To Blur With PS6 And Project Helix Last year, Kepler predicted that the PS6 would cost just $600, whereas now they report that memory alone will cost Sony over $680 per console. That's how quickly things have deteriorated. Between $1,000+ consoles and $70–80 games, the hobby is fast becoming an unaffordable luxury for many. In all likelihood, we'll see the lines blurred between generations even more than they already are, with the PS5 remaining the primary console for most users. It's hard to imagine Sony spending hundreds of millions of dollars on next-gen exclusives when the hardware is out of reach for most players. We've already seen this play out with the Steam Machine, which was initially poised as an affordable gaming PC for your sitting room before global computing shortages forced Valve to break the $1,000 ceiling, killing any momentum it had. PlayStation brand recognition may help somewhat with the PS6, but the reality is that with growing costs and stagnating wages, spending that much on hardware only marginally better than what you already have isn't nearly as enticing. Brand Sony Original Release Date November 12, 2020 Original MSRP (USD) $499, €499, £449, ¥49,980 (Base) / $399, €399, £359, ¥39,980 (Digital), Operating System Orbis OS Processor Custom 8-core AMD Zen 2 @ 3.5 GHz Resolution 720p - 8K