Sony confirmed last week that development on its "next-generation" PlayStation platform will pick up speed in 2027, but not everyone is convinced the world needs a PS6 right now. In an interview with The Trophy Room, former PlayStation boss Shawn Layden said true innovation would come from finding a way to lower the price of the PS5, allowing more potential buyers to enter the market.

"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. Now, that would be true innovation," Layden said, while also remarking how the PS5 generation saw price increases over time, not reductions.

Compared to previous generations, the PS5 has only gotten more expensive in the six years that it has been on the market, rising from $400 to $600 for the PS5 Digital Edition, while the PS5 with a disc drive has increased from $500 to $650. The PS5 Pro has seen the biggest increase in the few years it has been around, as the beefier machine has jumped from its original price of $700 to $900. Various factors are to blame, but one of the biggest is the global memory shortage that has hit all fields of technology, thanks to AI data centers eating into the world's supply.

A PS6 that costs over $1,000 will be out of reach for many consumers, and as Layden believes, it likely won't be as big a graphical leap forward as we've seen in previous PlayStation generations.

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