Featured Image Credit: Sony
Topics: Sony, PlayStation
According to a recent leak, the next PlayStation console might already be in development - and it’s hopefully going to be a lot cheaper than we might have assumed.
This news comes in the form of a post from a famed leaker going by the name of “Kelper”, who recently posted some info in a NeoGAF thread regarding Sony’s plans for their next console.
The leak was then compiled and boosted by another poster, HeisenbergFX4, in a separate thread detailing both of Kelper’s comments.
According to Kelper, “There's two SoCs in development for next-gen, idk if it's a Series X/S situation or home console + handheld, but probably one of them will be affordable at least.”
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They also followed that comment up by specifying that “the two SoCs I mentioned in that thread are for PS6.”
Now, in case you don’t understand all the jargon at play here, “SoC” is shorthand for “system on a chip”. A SoC is essentially a circuit that contains most of the components that a modern electronic system requires, such as its GPU, CPU and RAM.
In the case of home consoles, these SoCs are always custom-made. In the case of the PlayStation 5 for instance, the SoC was custom-built by both AMD and Sony.
So, why would Sony develop two SoCs at once? There are a couple of theories, but it’s possible that Kelper might be on the money with their Series X/S comparison.
Sony could potentially be developing two different PS6 consoles at once, one that is less powerful but more affordable and one that is superior but, obviously, more expensive.
Alternatively, a few commenters in the NeoGAF thread seem to think that this could mean that a handheld version of the PlayStation 6 could be in the works.
That would explain why one of the SoCs would be less expensive, as Sony would undoubtedly charge more for a console version vs. a handheld.
Ultimately we’ll have to see what announcements Sony has in store for us, but given that there were roughly three years between the announcement of the PlayStation 5 and the release of the PlayStation 4 Pro… we’ll probably be waiting a while.