By Hamza Faisal

If you are saving up for Sony's next console, the latest numbers are not encouraging. Hardware insider KeplerL2, a leaker with a track record of accurate PlayStation supply-chain detail, now says the PlayStation 6's RAM and SSD storage alone cost Sony more than $680 per unit — before the company pays for the processor, graphics hardware, cooling, motherboard, power supply, or the case itself.

The figure, posted on the NeoGAF forums on October 18, was made in reply to a forum user arguing that Sony could subsidize the PS6 down to a $680 launch price. KeplerL2 considers that implausible. The $680 figure covers only two components: system memory and NAND flash storage. Everything else that turns those chips into a working console is extra.

For context, the $680 figure alone is more than the retail price of an entire current-generation machine — the base 1TB PlayStation 5 sells for $649 in the US. Two parts of the next console now cost more than the whole current one.

Two parts, more than a whole PS5

The estimate has been escalating for months. Back in March, KeplerL2 put the PS6's total bill of materials at roughly $760, which at least kept a subsidized $699 launch price conceivable. By July, revised TSMC wafer pricing and sustained GDDR7 premiums had pushed the estimated total to around $960.

The latest figure is more alarming still: at $680, memory and storage alone account for over 70% of that $960 estimate, leaving roughly $280 for everything else. The main processor — expected to be an AMD chip built on TSMC's 3nm-class process — is estimated to cost Sony another $190 to $220 by itself, before cooling, board, power, and enclosure costs are counted.

Analysts following the leaks speculate Sony is weighing configurations of 24 to 32 gigabytes of GDDR7 memory paired with a 2TB PCIe Gen5 SSD. Some reports suggest Sony has even considered trimming memory capacity to control costs. No official word from Sony yet.

AI data centres ate the memory market

The squeeze is not really Sony's fault. AI data centres are buying up DRAM and NAND at enormous scale, and consumer hardware is getting what is left, at higher prices. GDDR7 memory — the fast graphics memory the PS6 is expected to use — is now estimated at $20 to $23 per gigabyte, compared with roughly $3 per gigabyte when console chip designs were first being planned.

TrendForce figures cited across industry reporting show DRAM prices rising roughly 90 to 95 percent quarter-over-quarter in the first quarter of 2026. Sony CEO Hiroki Totoki told the Wall Street Journal that memory prices are expected to stay high through the 2027 financial year, the period covering the PS6's expected late-2027 launch window.

A $1,000 PlayStation looks increasingly likely

The arithmetic now points in one direction. Sony has already signaled at an investor meeting that absorbing all component cost increases is not realistic and that it does not intend to sell hardware at significant losses. The PS5 Pro launched at $699 in 2024; with the PS6's parts bill pushing toward $1,000, the scenario of a $1,000-plus launch price is now taken seriously across industry coverage.

None of this is verified by Sony, and the $680 figure is a snapshot of current market conditions rather than Sony's actual supply contracts. But with the incumbent install base, expect a long cross-generational period — many doubt there will be meaningful PS6-exclusive games for years. For now, the biggest news about the next PlayStation generation is how expensive it is to build.

By Hamza Faisal