Analyst Predicts PS6 to Launch in 2028 at the Earliest Following Sony Killing Physical Games - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 01 July 2026 / 2,539 Views
Ampere analyst Piers Harding-Rolls has predicted the PlayStation 6 won't launch until 2028 at the earliest due to Sony killing physical game discs in January 2028.
"First, we believe this almost certainly guarantees that the PS6 won’t arrive until 2028 at the earliest," he said (via VideoGamesChronicle). "Ampere's current expectation is that the console will launch at the end of 2028."
He believes the PS6 will now "at a minimum" not include a physical disc drive. However, a disc drive add-on could be made available in order to play backwards compatible games.
Harding-Rolls added, "Sony will be looking for all the ways it can reduce the cost of its next-gen console, and this is an easy win. It's possible that an add-on disc drive could be made available to play older PS4 and PS5 games on disc."
"It may be too impractical or too complex, but some process of transferal for older physical media to a digital license could alleviate some of these issues," he speculated.
Starting in January 2028, all new games release on PlayStation consoles on the PlayStation Store and at retailers will be in digital formats only.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can follow the author on Bluesky.
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No physical will mean larger storage needed, meaning console will be even more expensive due to the increasing cost of storage.
You are wrong (but a bit right also). Already for the last generations the games don't run from the discs anyway but the data get fully transfered to the internal storage. However, the existence of physical games pushed developers to compress game sizes, so they could fit the game on there, that insentive will disappear.
Screw em, I hope it fails.
The minute i saw the news i said no way the launch PS6 until this goes into effect. It make sense for marketing to just launch the console post disc elimination and go from there.
If they launch before they will have to explain how backwards compatibility won't be available on PS6 disc for PS5 and PS5 games. Its best to let the current gen console take the marketing hit and launch the PS6 a few months later with the bad news out of the way.
Console hardware is worth the most right at launch. Delaying makes no sense. It won't magically cost less, but it will have less value as older hardware.
