The PlayStation 6 is already shaping up to be an expensive upgrade, and early estimates suggest Sony could face a tough balancing act between pricing and performance as component costs continue to rise. Reports now point to a bill of materials that crosses expected limits, which puts pressure on Sony to either absorb costs or pass them to buyers, especially when recent PlayStation 5 models have already seen price increases.
According to known AMD leaker KeplerL2, Sony still has room to price the PlayStation 6 at $699, even though the system may cost more to build than expected.
“My current BOM (bill of materials) estimate for PS6 is ~$760, so I would say $699 is still possible with a reasonable subsidy.”
KeplerL2 shared this estimate on NeoGAF and also noted that the system could ship with a 1TB Gen5 SSD and no disk drive, which keeps costs controlled to some extent, though storage pricing remains a key concern. He also raised a critical point about market dynamics, saying the company may rethink aggressive pricing since Xbox is no longer a direct competitor in the same space.
Rising costs and market pressure
The PlayStation 6 faces more than just manufacturing challenges, as rising SSD and RAM prices continue to push overall costs higher while broader economic conditions add uncertainty around consumer spending. These factors create pressure on Sony to justify the upgrade, especially when many users still own relatively new PlayStation 5 systems.
Alderon Games founder Matthew Cassells believes Sony could struggle to convince existing players to upgrade, and that hesitation could lead to a longer cross-generation phase where new titles still support older hardware, which slows down the full potential of next-generation gaming.
Overall, Sony now needs to manage pricing, hardware upgrades, and user expectations at the same time, which will define how successful the PlayStation 6 becomes when it launches.
