Analysts say Sony's digital-only plan 'almost certainly guarantees that the PS6 won’t arrive until 2028 at the…

Sony plans to halt physical game production by January 2028

Analysts say the announcement telegraphs that the PS6 will arrive in 2028

It's predicted that the console won't have a disc drive

Following Sony's announcement that it will halt production of physical games within the next two years, analysts have determined that the next-gen PS6 console will launch in 2028.

According to Ampere analyst Piers Harding-Rolls, PlayStation's all-digital plan "telegraphs quite a lot of information about Sony’s plans for its next-generation console, the PlayStation 6," including a release window.

"We believe this almost certainly guarantees that the PS6 won’t arrive until 2028 at the earliest," he predicted, adding that the "current expectation is that the console will launch at the end of 2028."

Harding-Rolls also suggests that "at a minimum," the standard version of the PS6 won't have a physical media disc drive because Sony will be looking for ways to reduce the cost of its next-gen hardware, and "this is an easy win."

"It’s possible that an add-on disc drive could be made available to play older PS4 and PS5 games on disc," the analyst added.

"Removing the drive will upset some gamers that don’t want to pay for an add-on disc drive (if available) and that want to access their game collections on disc. It may be too impractical or too complex, but some process of transferral for older physical media to a digital license could alleviate some of these issues."

Whether the PS6 will be a console like the PS5 is yet to be known; however, recent comments from Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Hideaki Nishino seem to suggest that the next-generation PlayStation console could be a handheld.

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Nishino said, "For the next-generation platform, rather than simply serving as an alternative to PCs, we aim to deliver value that is unique to PlayStation," which would include "technological advancements but also an expansion of usage styles, enabling a seamless experience that can be enjoyed naturally beyond the living room."

New reports have claimed that Microsoft is also moving away from physical media.

It's said that the company is testing a disc-to-digital feature for existing consoles and could release a next-gen Project Helix console without a disc drive.

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Demi is a freelance games journalist who helps cover gaming news at TechRadar. She's been a games writer for five years and has written for outlets such as GameSpot, NME, and GamesRadar, covering news, features, and reviews. Outside of writing, she plays a lot of RPGs and talks far too much about Star Wars on X.