PlayStation 6 Release Date Hinted In Docs From Sony To Counter Microsoft-Activision Deal: Report

Sony may be planning to release its next video game console, the PlayStation 6, or PS6, by 2027.

New York-based outlet Inverse made the assumption based on a document Sony submitted to the United Kingdom's Competition and Markets Authority as part of its opposition to Microsoft's pending $68.7 billion acquisition of video game giant Activision Blizzard.

In a 22-page observation report dated Oct. 28, 2022, Sony, represented by the law firm Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, stated that Microsoft "has offered to continue making Activision's games available on PlayStation only until 2027."

Sony would have already lost access to Activision Blizzard's "Call of Duty" series and other titles by the time it launched its next-generation PlayStation console, it read.

The projected launch period for Sony's upcoming console was included in the document but was redacted.

"Given that Microsoft offered to make Activision games available on PlayStation until 2027, and how Sony's next system will supposedly be out by then, you can infer that the PS6 is planned to release in late 2027 or 2028," Inverse wrote.

"This would be in keeping with lifecycles of previous Sony hardware. The PS3 launched in 2006, followed by the PS4 in 2013, and then the PS5 in 2020 — all seven-year cycles," the outlet added.

Video games writer and industry news leaker Tom Henderson also reported in his blog, Insider Gaming, that the next generation PlayStation console "is unlikely to release until at least 2028."

"This would put the current generation console release schedule in line with its predecessors," he said in a piece published Tuesday.

Meanwhile, unnamed sources have confirmed to Henderson that an upgrade to Sony's current PS5 console, a so-called PS5 Pro, is in development and already has a tentative release date of late 2024.

Henderson previously reported that a new PS5 model with a detachable disc is scheduled to release later this year.

It is understood that this new non-Pro model will phase out the current PS5 model to cut down on production and shipping costs.

This is "just the beginning of new hardware coming to PlayStation users this generation," one source told Insider Gaming when talking about the rumored console with a detachable disc drive.