A new video from Sony discusses what tech you can expect from the PlayStation 6, even if Sony’s yet to refer to the console by name.
Sony will have been working on the PlayStation 6 for a while now – typically companies start as soon as the previous console comes out – but only this year has it shown signs that it’s preparing itself for a public reveal and eventual release.
Just a few months ago, chip manufacturer AMD announced it would be partnering with Sony on something called Project Amethyst, which is presumably either the PlayStation 6 or the rumoured handheld… assuming they’re not one and the same.
Earlier today, Sony itself published a video featuring AMD senior vice president Jack Hunyh alongside Mark Cerny, lead architect on the PlayStation 5, to discuss the kind of technology that is being planned for Project Amethyst.
It’s a lot of technobabble that the average gamer isn’t going to be too concerned about, but it is a clear prelude to a more digestible hardware annoucement in the relatively near future.
What is interesting, is that Cerny very much implies that Sony’s next console is only a few years away: ‘It’s still very early days for these technologies. They only exist in simulation right now, but the results are quite promising, and I’m really excited about bringing them to a future console in a few years’ time.’
This does line up with prevailing rumours and theories that Sony is aiming for a 2027 launch for the PlayStation 6, with even the more pessimistic predictions being only a year later than that.
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Microsoft is already rumoured to be aiming for 2027 with its next gen Xbox console, so Sony won’t want to give them a headstart.
Sony may have comfortably stomped Microsoft when it comes to hardware sales, but it’s still not going to like the idea of there being a new Xbox on the market without having its own console available too.
As for the tech itself, Cerny and Huynh highlight three breakthroughs: Neural Arrays, Radiance Cores, and Universal Compression.
The long and short of it is that they’ll allow for improved upscaling, making ray-tracing less demanding, and to ‘deliver more detail, higher frame rates and greater efficiency.’
Basically, games will look and run ever so slightly better. But a common issue with modern gaming is that we’ve hit a glass ceiling when it comes to improving graphics, so it’s hard to imagine these improvements making all that much difference to the average person.
It doesn’t sound like these will be PlayStation 6 exclusive boons either, since Huynh mentions that the plan is ‘to bring these innovations to developers across every gaming platform.’
So, you can probably expect to hear Microsoft mention the same tech for its next spate of hardware, which it insists it’s working on despite rumours to the contrary.
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