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Next-gen PS6, Xbox Project Helix may cost $1,000 at launch, analysts warn | Xbox and Switch 2 could also get future price hikes to combat inflation

IbizaPocholo

NeoGAFs Kent Brockman

Analysts and industry experts weigh in on the current state of game console prices, warning that the next-gen PS6 and Project Helix might cost $1,000 at release.

Afflicted with sticker shock, gamers are balking at the newly announced PS5 price hikes, particularly to the $900 price tag attached to Sony's mid-gen PlayStation 5 Pro console. But key figures in the games industry say that this new era of prohibitive pricing may just be the beginning of things to come, and higher MSRP could be here to stay throughout Gen 10.

"We're quickly moving towards a world in which a $1,000 console will be the norm, and console gaming will become a luxury expenditure," Joost van Dreunen, co-founder of analyst firm Superdata (acquired by Circana) and a current professor of NYU Stern School of Business, tells GamesRadar in a recent interview.

"I think $999 at least for one variant of the PS6 is not impossible," Dr. Serkan Toto, CEO of Japanese games consultancy firm Kantan Games, tells GamesRadar.


In a recent interview with Eurogamer, Ampere's Piers Harding-Rolls explains the current situation, saying that the price hikes are a result of supply chain disruptions and a bid to combat inflation.

"The supply chain shock of the elongated increase in memory and storage prices - both essential for console hardware - means that there is some inevitability to the PlayStation hardware price increases announced by Sony today. It is likely that Sony had price protections for its components for a set period, and this may well have come to an end.

"With no sign of prices easing largely due to demand for AI infrastructure, Sony will have made the move to protect its slim hardware margins. It wouldn't be a surprise if Microsoft and Nintendo followed suit in the not-too-distant future."

The info is interesting because Microsoft has already raised the prices of its Xbox hardware two separate times in 2025, once in May, and then again in October. At the time of writing, Microsoft's most expensive console, the special edition Xbox Series X 2TB Galaxy Black edition, retails for $800.

Harding-Rolls goes on to discuss how inflation could have affected price adjustments:

"A new wave of inflation is expected from the war in the Middle East, and this will compound the effect of the component price increases.

"This may have had an influence on the scale of these price increases - the standard PS5 will rise by $100 or 18 percent in the US with a similar increase in the UK and Europe. Aside from a direct impact on hardware companies, I think this will cause some general industry concern about what the broader impact will be on market activity."

As for Nintendo, the price hike seems more likely as it is believed that the company is losing money on each Japan-only Switch 2 produced.
 
Oddly, I'm hoping for it to cost a little more, maybe $1,200- $1,300. I'm in the minority, but I want as much shit crammed into this hybrid PC as possible. Referring specifically to Helix, of course.

Also, I'm working under the assumption that the margin would be staying consistent from the alleged $1,000 price and the prices that I suggested. I don't expect this to be a popular opinion, and I get that.

Edit: at least one person is having trouble with this, so I'll explain. I gave an idealized scenario. This in no way is a prediction of how the margin will indeed be determined. Luckily for us, the Helix will not release in a vacuum. We will have the PS6, with a SoC that is also designed by AMD, so some price per performance comparisons will be able to be performed.
 
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Helix is not just one single device, it's an entire portfolio of devices including cheaper consoles. So only the Premium Xbox Console will be $1200+.
Microsoft confirmed a while back that it's just one device.

Edit: Which makes sense as we've only ever heard about one.
 
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They will most certainly cost upwards of $1000 so they might as well raise the prices on current consoles now to normalize high prices. No way if they plan on releasing these next year the "market" or hardware prices are gonna go down.
 
For any gamers pissed at the high prices of consoles and dont give a shit about playing their old games, buying a new PC is pricey too (assuming your current PC isnt great and need to upgrade it).

But you can always dump your PS5 or SX next gen. Get whatever it's worth on Ebay (PS5 and SX are going for $500+ in Canada) and put it towards the PC. You'll also save on annual MP sub plan fees and Steam games on deal will be a bit cheaper too. So you'll get some savings there too unless youre someone who values all those sub plan games.
 
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If they both launch at $1,000 then the console market will 100% die.

It would be a catastrophically stupid decision to price themselves out of the console space. If 3/4 of your current userbase cannot afford your next machine, what is the incentive for developers and publishers to support your next machine? There goes billions of dollars in subscription revenue, billions in software sales, billions in 3rd-party revenue, and billions in accesory sales.

Although they're not 1-to-1, phones never priced themselves out of the mobile space. Even when Apple and Samsung jumped to having $1K+ phones, they still had lower-priced variants of their devices. This is the correct way to deal with short-sighted profit-driven leadership; you make both a premium and a non-premium device and call it a day.
 
If they both launch at $1,000 then the console market will 100% die.
Sony isn't that naive to launch only a 1k console. They're more likely to release a handheld variant without a display that you can connect to a TV, something like an Xbox Series S. Or maybe even a PS6 Lite right away. Maybe they'll also keep producing the PS5 Pro and just rebrand it.
 
I..I don't know.

Inflation and rising cost of living is resulting in a lot of trouble in the economy these days.

It's one of the primary reasons restaurants had to adapt and bring back value menus somehow. You reach a point where people just stop buying your stuff. It either isn't worth it or they can't afford it.

$1000 entry points for consoles to me feels like it would be an almost automatic industry crash.
 
Sony isn't that naive to launch only a 1k console. They're more likely to release a handheld variant without a display that you can connect to a TV, something like an Xbox Series S. Or maybe even a PS6 Lite right away. Maybe they'll also keep producing the PS5 Pro and just rebrand it.
Are you 100% confident with the bolded?

Unless the rumors are wrong, their handheld will launch alongside the console. However, if games for the PS6 console -- or even the PS5 -- don't scale well to handheld, then they're in for complete customer disinterest from their current userbase. Who wants to play The Witcher 4/Goddess of War/Spider-Man 3 under 30fps with faux 1080p?
 
Are you 100% confident with the bolded?

Unless the rumors are wrong, their handheld will launch alongside the console. However, if games for the PS6 console -- or even the PS5 -- don't scale well to handheld, then they're in for complete customer disinterest from their current userbase. Who wants to play The Witcher 4/Goddess of War/Spider-Man 3 under 30fps with faux 1080p?
Yes, they're not that out of touch with casual players. 1k would be too much for many. I think they'll offer something around 699, since that's likely the pain threshold for a lot of players.
 
Nobody guessed PS5 Pro would be $700. And nobody expected it to bump up to $900 now.

So $1,000 is not out of the question unless chip prices crash down, tariffs come down or Sony is willing to do those jumbo sized PS3 era subsidies. If these dont happen, you arent getting PS6 for $900 or less.

Assuming PS6 is digital, here's the comparison now for non-disc systems:

PS5 $600
PS5 Pro $900
PS6 ???
 
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Nobody guessed PS5 Pro would be $700. And nobody expected it to bump up to $900 now.

So $1,000 is not out of the question unless chip prices crash down, tariffs come down or Sony is willing to do those jumbo sized PS3 era subsidies. If these dont happen, you arent getting PS6 for $900 or less.

Assuming PS6 is digital, here's the comparison now for non-disc systems:

PS5 $600
PS5 Pro $900
PS6 ???
Nine Nine Nine HUNDRED US DOLLARS
 
Yes, they're not that out of touch with casual players. 1k would be too much for many. I think they'll offer something around 699, since that's likely the pain threshold for a lot of players.
Maybe you're right, but if they're taking a profit > market share approach, they're signing out of the casual market.

Even $700 is too much for casuals. We saw the public backlash and subsequent slow adoption of the PS5 Pro when its price was announced.

I think $400 is the sweet spot. Is that realistic for all of their future ML, ray tracing, and controller desires? Probably not. However, this is why terms like overengineering and out of touch exist. You never put your technological desires over market realities.
 
Nobody guessed PS5 Pro would be $700. And nobody expected it to bump up to $900 now.

So $1,000 is not out of the question unless chip prices crash down, tariffs come down or Sony is willing to do those jumbo sized PS3 era subsidies. If these dont happen, you arent getting PS6 for $900 or less.

Assuming PS6 is digital, here's the comparison now for non-disc systems:

PS5 $600
PS5 Pro $900
PS6 ???
PS5 Pro will likely be discontinued, as that's how it went with PS4 Pro.

PS5 $600
PS6 ???
 
think $400 is the sweet spot. Is that realistic for all of their future ML, ray tracing, and controller desires? Probably not. However, this is why terms like overengineering and out of touch exist. You never put your technological desires over market realities.
Is anyone really expecting Sony to loose 90% of their user base to Microsoft if they went and released a 400 USD console vs. Magnus, effectively pulling a Wii? I doubt it. Makes you wonder why they don't do it then.
 
899 to 999 for a ps6 - 1,399 to 1,499 for an Xbox helix

That's based on today's price. We could be looking at even more next year.

Might be 1,299 to 1,499 for a ps6 and 1,999 for the helix if pricing continue to rise.

Gaming is fucked and there will be a crash if this continues.

Shit, there's gonna be an worldwide economic crash if this continues.
 
problem with consoles costing this much, it gets to the point where its like i may as well pay a bit more and get a PC.

I cant imagine Sony going that high, MS sure.
 
Kind of interested to see how they do. Personally I think it will bomb hard, it's getting to be stuck between a rock and a hard place. At that money I would build a living room htpc which I can upgrade the GPU etc in, it's far too pricey for main stream console gamers. I just don't see it gaining any ground but I guess we will see.
 
Sony isn't that naive to launch only a 1k console. They're more likely to release a handheld variant without a display that you can connect to a TV, something like an Xbox Series S. Or maybe even a PS6 Lite right away. Maybe they'll also keep producing the PS5 Pro and just rebrand it.
Something modular perhaps? PS6 lite + PS Portal 2 = PS6 Portable
 
Older gamers are the untapped market that the industry needs to pivot to.

Look at all game marketing of the last decades - it's targeted at teenagers and 20-something old cool kids.

At this price point they need to tap the 'dad' market.
 
If I have to pay a lot for a console, I'd rather build a new PC. With a PC, you're free to do whatever you want; with a console, you're not.
If a console costs $1000..... how much do you think building an equivalent-specced PC would cost? Or even worse to build a PC that is more powerful?

I get the whole "do whatever you want" thing people say, but the primary reason to have a powerful PC, if not for work, is for gaming.

Hell, case in point, a PS6 has a GPU that is rumoured to be on par with a 5070ti. That GPU on its own costs around a $1000. Even if the PS6 GPu is 20% weaker than that, thats still $1000 for just an equivalent GPU vs spending a $1000 for an entire system. (not that I believe the PS6 will cost $1000, but just making a point). If consoles can cost $1000 and still be sold at a loss? Then wait till you all see how much PC components would cost around that time.

It's time to accept it, these shortages and wars and whatever the fuck else is going to fuck us all.

Shit, there's gonna be an worldwide economic crash if this continues.
Exactly... its not just gaming. If this continues, there will be a worldwide "electronics" crash. Something needs to happen.

We can't be pointing fingers at OEMs anymore; they are all scrambling to adjust, and from my understanding, the only reason Sony didn't do this hike sooner was that they went on some sort of purchase spree sometime last year when prices were lower. But Sony is a tier 2 client, meaning that even when they do their contracts, they are only guranteed 80% of their chips if prices increase.
 
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I probably won't get them new or at launch for the first time at this price point. I'm not spending that money to play GaaS. I want carefully scripted and built games that are quality and have me coming back to replay them. I already got my high end PC.
 
helix be $1.5k+ easily, they were already positioning it as non-subsidized premium before the recent craze.
between that and 10k$ pc builds, ps6 will probably be the bargain of next gen too.
 
If they both launch at $1,000 then the console market will 100% die.

It would be a catastrophically stupid decision to price themselves out of the console space.
This IS the console space now, and for the foreseeable future.

I guess those who insisted that the Switch (including the S2) isn't a console are kinda right now. The non-console is now significantly cheaper than the cheapest "real" console, exactly like it should be since it's not as powerful. I mean guys, you wanted your console to be premium compared to the overpriced toy? There, you have it. Now they are both priced right. Happy?



Who wants to play The Witcher 4/Goddess of War/Spider-Man 3 under 30fps with faux 1080p?
More people than those who want to pay $1000+ for a console, methinks.
 
If they both launch at $1,000 then the console market will 100% die.

It would be a catastrophically stupid decision to price themselves out of the console space. If 3/4 of your current userbase cannot afford your next machine, what is the incentive for developers and publishers to support your next machine? There goes billions of dollars in subscription revenue, billions in software sales, billions in 3rd-party revenue, and billions in accesory sales.

Although they're not 1-to-1, phones never priced themselves out of the mobile space. Even when Apple and Samsung jumped to having $1K+ phones, they still had lower-priced variants of their devices. This is the correct way to deal with short-sighted profit-driven leadership; you make both a premium and a non-premium device and call it a day.
Phones are also subsidized and/or paid for in installments thanks to massive competition between carriers. Phones would not sell like they do if everyone had to pay retail up front. Unfortunately, Sonys competition is now one of its biggest partners. And worse, Sony has a new track record of using lack of competition and or price increases to justify (internally I assume) massive increases on hardware and online taxes that lead to massive profits.
 
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Are you 100% confident with the bolded?

Unless the rumors are wrong, their handheld will launch alongside the console. However, if games for the PS6 console -- or even the PS5 -- don't scale well to handheld, then they're in for complete customer disinterest from their current userbase. Who wants to play The Witcher 4/Goddess of War/Spider-Man 3 under 30fps with faux 1080p?
It could be successful if the PS6 Portable is released first, say in 2027, and the home console version, the Pro, is released in 2029. As long as the base is the Portable, developers can't ignore it, and anyway, game engines are very malleable these days.
 
I could see it moving to a installment plan like phones. I mean really when you think about the length of time for a console generation compared to a phone generation(1 year)..installment plans should be easy and low cost.
 
There is no chance in hell that PS6 will be "on par" with 5070 Ti. Lol.
Rumors suggest performance on par, and some would even say better than a 5070ti. Its not that hard to see the second you actually take what the leaked specs say.

Its to have 54CU clocked at 3Ghz. That puts it at 41TF in raster perf. The 5070ti has 43TF. And then it's to have Rt that the leaks and tech suggest will be at least on par or better. If that's not on par then I don't know what is... unless these rumors are totally false. And that's a totally different conversation, cause then its not about if its on par or not, but how credible the leaks are.
 
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If they reduce the RAM to 24GB, I think those prices would be possible. Wasn't the PS6 chip smaller than the PS5 Fat's?
TSMC N3P is a lot more expensive than N6, smaller chip won't help.

If the current memory situation remains $599 is totally impossible. Don't know why the op suggested that, ignorance?
 
Rumors suggest performance on par, and some would even say better than a 5070ti. Its not that hard to see the second you actually take what the leaked specs say.

Its to have 54CU clocked at 3Ghz. That puts it at 41TF in raster perf. The 5070ti has 43TF. And then it's to have Rt that the leaks and tech suggest will be at least on par or better. If that's not on par then I don't know what is... unless these rumors are totally false. And that's a totally different conversation, cause then its not about if its on par or not, but how credible the leaks are.
It's an AMD APU. It doesn't matter what "rumored" specs are. You put that thing up against a 5070 Ti and it will be murdered in performance comparisons.
 
If they reduce the RAM to 24GB, I think those prices would be possible. Wasn't the PS6 chip smaller than the PS5 Fat's?

I think the rumor was 260 or so? Similar to the Pro and smaller than the original PS5.

But yes the N3P node is much more expensive.

Magnus is rumored to be about 400 in total.
 
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$1000 console, and $100 games please. I've been paying 60bux for games since I was a kid, it's time we give more back. Gaming is a rich mans hobby, Poors should "git gud" at the game of life instead.
 
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It's an AMD APU. It doesn't matter what "rumored" specs are. You put that thing up against a 5070 Ti and it will be murdered in performance comparisons.
Well, you will be wrong. And that is understandable because you probably have not followed said rumors and even what Cerny has discussed about the whole project amertyst thing.

Long story short, when it came to raster performance, AMD had alwys held tehir own and in some cases even bettered Nvidia. AMDs problem had always been that when it came to RT or ML performance, they weren't worth shit. Thats changing with RDNA5 though, because those are the two specific areas that has been focused on, significantly better RT and ML hardware. There isn't some secret sauce as to why Nvidia had always excelled in those areas; AMD GPUs just locked the specialized hardware to do those things properly, now they will have it.

If they reduce the RAM to 24GB, I think those prices would be possible. Wasn't the PS6 chip smaller than the PS5 Fat's?
The RAM is the one thing they don't want to fuck with, and they can't actually even reduce it like that. The RAM capacity is kinda dictaded by the bus with, and the PS6 is rumoured to have 160bit. Thats 5 channels. So, putting two chips per panel? They can only end up with 20GB, 30GB or 40GB of GDDR7 RAM. They cant go with 20GB, so the next best thing is 30GB. And proper PSSR, PT...etc... takes up a LOT of RAM.
I think the rumor was 260 or so? Similar to the Pro and smaller than the original PS5.

But yes the N3P node is much more expensive.

Magnus is rumored to be about 400 in total.
PS6 - 280mm2.
 
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