Affected by the tight supply of memory and high costs, Sony's hardware configuration strategy for the next-generation console PlayStation 6 is gradually shrinking from the "32GB memory dream" that was widely rumored earlier to a more realistic "24GB memory solution" to avoid pushing the price of the whole machine to a level that is unacceptable to consumers.
When Sony management recently announced its fourth quarter and full-year financial report for fiscal year 2025, it admitted that due to the current memory market's continued shortage and high prices, the company has not yet finalized the launch schedule of PlayStation 6. The main concern is that hardware costs may force the new console's initial price to exceed the "reasonable range."
According to KeplerL2, a well-known AMD-related whistleblower on the NeoGAF forum, the "relatively reasonable" cost reduction measures Sony can take without significantly weakening the performance of the entire machine mainly focus on two points: first, narrowing the memory bus width, and second, moderately reducing the available RAM capacity of the system. In the face of some players proposing a more radical shrinking plan such as "20GB memory + 500GB SSD", the whistleblower bluntly stated that this level of specification castration "contradicts the original intention of launching a next-generation console." He believes that a more realistic approach is to maintain the SSD at 1TB, while in extreme cases reducing the memory bus to 128 bits and compressing the video memory capacity to about 24GB to find a balance between performance and cost.
In response to some users questioning the view that "narrowing the memory bus has limited savings and is not worth the risk," KeplerL2 provided rebuttal data, saying that at the current GDDR7 price level, reducing the bus width from higher specifications to 128 bits can bring about a $60 reduction in bill of materials (BOM). At the same time, it can also improve the APU chip yield by shielding some memory controller units, thereby further diluting cost pressure on the manufacturing side. From an engineering implementation perspective, this adjustment does not require a complete reconstruction of the APU. It can be completed by simply turning off a set of memory controllers in the design.
On the trade-off issue of "bus vs. capacity", some people believe that the total amount of RAM should not be compressed rather than sacrificing bandwidth, but KeplerL2 pointed out that most game developers would be "more willing to accept 24GB of memory with slightly lower bandwidth" rather than a narrower capacity limit. One example cited by the report is that by doubling the memory, the Nintendo Switch can exceed the original expectations of the handheld platform to a certain extent when running masterpieces such as "Final Fantasy 7: Remake". This is regarded as evidence of "the importance of memory capacity in actual experience."
If the macroeconomic and supply chain situation continues to be tight and it is forced to compromise on some hardware indicators of PlayStation 6, Sony will inevitably have further difficulty in convincing existing PS5 users to upgrade. Industry opinion believes that how to still fulfill the promise of "next generation experience" while controlling the price of the whole machine and coping with the shortage of core components such as memory will become a major test for Sony in PS6 planning and launch pace.