Forget The PlayStation 5 Pro, Here's When The PlayStation 6 Might Arrive

Sony has recently released its PlayStation 5 Pro, which is a modest bump in graphics performance and certainly not a next-generation upgrade. While console releases are typically few and far between, early murmurs of the next PlayStation are already starting to crop up. Supposedly to be named the PlayStation 6, we can gleam what may be under its hood by the upcoming AMD graphics upgrades. It likely will not release in several years before those AMD upgrades hit the market, however. 

AMD reportedly plans to start producing its UDNA series of GPUs sometime around quarter two of 2026, which will replace its current RDNA 4 lineup. According to WCCFTech, AMD has been planning to unify its GPU lineup and this new GPU architecture will integrate both its gaming and workstation focused products. 

How that bodes for the PlayStation 6 is a good question, but you can speculate that Sony will want to use this next-generation architecture in its upcoming PS6. Sony has a keen interest in keeping in line with updates from AMD, since it likely means a smoother transition to the next-generation platform. 

While we would not expect the console to release right around the same time, it certainly will not come before as the PS5 Pro has just landed. This would push a potential PS6 towards the later half of 2026 and beyond, at the very minimum. Keep in mind this is just pure speculation based on when new AMD products are coming, so only time will tell the accurate path. 

The PS5 Pro and PS5 employ AMD's RDNA 4 architecture that also shares a lot with RDNA 3, so the change to UDNA should be eventually expected. The PS5 Pro has received a lukewarm reception so far, given its hefty $699 price tag considering it is a modest GPU upgrade over the existing PS5 and does not offer much beyond that. 

The extra graphics capabilities, such as ray tracing in Alan Wake 2, is certainly appreciated, along with increased frame rates. To add some issues to the mix, games such as Silent Hill 2 Remake have had some technical glitches that have it performing worse on the PS5 Pro than the standard model. 

While gamers expect bleeding edge graphics and performance from a new release, we also expect some degree of backwards compatibility. This just seems more logical and easier to do with the continuation of the same GPU family, hence why Sony likely will not jump ship to NVIDIA, for example. 

Sony is hard at work behind the scenes to secure plenty of high-quality games, such as the recent news it may be looking to acquire Elden Ring masterminds FromSoftware. The transition to UDNA 4 will also likely be accompanied by the next generation CPU architecture, but it is unclear what the PS6 would receive. It would likely fall somewhere between the AMD Zen 4 and Zen 5 CPUs, or some custom version based on them.