Shawn Layden on PS6: A Cheaper Console Beats More Power

By Eoin Villarin, 2026-11-08

Former PlayStation boss Shawn Layden says the PS6 does not need more power and that a $300 PS5 would be the real innovation. What he said, PS5 price history, Bloodborne 2 rights and the lesson for websites.

Former PlayStation boss Shawn Layden says the PS6 does not need to be more powerful to succeed. In a new interview on The Trophy Room podcast, he argued that Sony already has enough power in the machine, and that the real breakthrough would be a cheaper console, something like a PS5 for $300. Here is what he said, why console prices have gone up instead of down, what it could mean for the PS6, and what the same lesson means for anyone building websites and online stores.

What did Shawn Layden say about the PS6?

Speaking on The Trophy Room podcast, in comments reported by GamesRadar+ on November 7, 2026, Layden made four main points:

• Power is no longer the selling point. "I think we have enough power in the machine," he said. He described the gains from more ray tracing and more teraflops as differences most players will not notice.
• Price is the real innovation. Instead of a PS6 that costs around $1,200, he said the bigger achievement would be making another PS5 for $300.
• Do not iterate the console. His advice to Sony is to do what it has never done: make the hardware smaller and cheaper rather than chasing a big spec jump.
• Prices going up is new. He said the PS5 is the first platform he has seen that went up in price over its life, which keeps out the late buyers who usually join near the end of a generation.

Layden is not predicting a $1,200 PS6, and Sony has not announced any price, specs or release date. He is describing the direction he thinks Sony should take.

Who is Shawn Layden?

Shawn Layden spent more than three decades at Sony. He was chairman of Sony Interactive Entertainment Worldwide Studios and president and CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment America, overseeing first-party studios during the PS4 era before he left the company in 2019. Since then he has become one of the most quoted voices on where PlayStation and the wider games industry should go, and he presented the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2026 Game Developers Choice Awards.

Why did PS5 prices go up instead of down?

Consoles normally get cheaper as a generation goes on. The PS5 went the other way. Sony raised US prices by about $50 in August 2025 and again by $100 on April 2, 2026, blaming a global shortage of memory chips. AI data centers are buying huge amounts of memory, so chipmakers favor that higher-margin business and supply for consoles, phones and PCs gets tighter.

Prices can change again, so check the PlayStation Store or a major retailer before you buy. Reuters reported that PS5 sales fell 16% year on year to 8 million units in the October to December 2025 holiday quarter, a sign of how higher prices hit demand late in a generation.

How much did every PlayStation cost at launch?

Layden pointed out that every early PlayStation generation brought something you could see straight away: the jump from PS1 to PS2, and from CDs to DVDs. Even the PS4 brought a fully networked console for $399. Here is how the US launch prices compare:

The pattern matters. The PS3 launched at the highest price in this list and had the hardest start of any modern PlayStation. The PS4 came back down to $399 and became one of Sony's best-selling consoles.

Why more teraflops no longer sell consoles

A teraflop is a measure of how many calculations a graphics chip can do per second. Ray tracing is a way of drawing light, shadows and reflections more realistically. Both still improve, but each new step is harder to see on a normal TV. Layden made the same argument a month earlier on The Expansion Pass podcast, in comments reported on October 4, 2026: if a new console only offers more ray tracing and more teraflops, he doubts that pitch will convince people to spend around $1,000. He asked whether technology has reached a plateau where "faster and more colorful" is no longer a reason to upgrade.

In practice, that means:

1. Smaller visible gains. Going from standard definition to HD was obvious. Going from very good lighting to slightly better lighting is not.
2. Higher costs. Bigger chips and more memory cost more, at a time when memory is already expensive.
3. Longer, pricier game development. Games that push the hardware take years and huge budgets to make, so fewer of them come out.
4. Fewer new players. A $600 to $1,000 entry price shuts out the families and late adopters who usually grow a platform.

What does Layden think Sony should do instead?

• Keep the current hardware and make it cheaper. A smaller, lower-cost PS5-class machine at around $300 would bring in buyers who are priced out today.
• Do not launch a handheld and a home console at the same time. On the same podcast he said that supporting both PSP and PS3 at once was so hard you almost have to create two companies. If Sony goes with a PS6 handheld, he thinks it has a good chance of winning only if it does not launch a home console alongside it.
• Focus on games, not specs. He said there is more than enough power to build the kind of games players want.

Why hasn't Bloodborne 2 happened?

The same interview also covered Bloodborne, the 2015 PS4 game made by FromSoftware. Layden said the biggest problem is rights, not interest. "There's a lot of involved rights associated with it," he said, explaining that Sony, FromSoftware and FromSoftware's parent company Kadokawa would all have to agree. He also said any return would need to respect the original and recreate what made it a phenomenon. This is his view as a former executive, not an announcement, and no Bloodborne sequel or remaster has been confirmed. He also talked about Sony's purchase of Insomniac Games and support for indie games.

When will the PS6 come out and how much will it cost?

Sony has not announced a release date, price or specs for the PS6. Analysts have talked about prices near $1,000 for the next PlayStation and for Microsoft's next Xbox, known as Project Helix, and some reports say the memory shortage could push the launch later than expected. Treat any specific PS6 price or date you see online as a rumor until Sony confirms it.

What this means for websites and online stores

Layden's point applies far beyond consoles. Customers rarely pay for raw power they cannot see. They pay for something that is easy to get, easy to use and fairly priced. I see the same thing in web projects, where heavy features and big animations often matter less to sales than a fast, simple site that works on a cheap phone. Practical steps:

1. Design for the average device, not the best one. Most visitors browse on mid-range phones over mobile data. Test on one before you launch. My Core Web Vitals guide shows what to measure.
2. Cut what nobody notices. Large videos, heavy sliders and extra scripts slow pages down without adding sales. Remove anything that does not help a visitor decide.
3. Keep the entry price low. Free shipping thresholds, clear pricing and a simple checkout do more than extra features. If you sell on Shopify, my Shopify speed guide covers the quick wins.
4. Improve before you rebuild. Like a cheaper PS5 instead of a new PS6, a well-tuned existing site often beats an expensive redesign. Read how much a website costs in 2026 before you commit.
5. Get an outside check. A free website audit shows what is actually slowing your site down and what to fix first.

If you need help building or speeding up a site, see my web design and Shopify development services. For more PlayStation news, read about the PS5 Pro shortage ahead of GTA 6 and how generative AI could speed up the GTA 6 PC port.

Frequently asked questions

What did Shawn Layden say about the PS6?

He said the PS6 does not need more power and that the real innovation would be making a cheaper console, such as a PS5 for $300, instead of a PS6 that costs around $1,200.

Where did Shawn Layden make these comments?

On The Trophy Room podcast, reported by GamesRadar+ on November 7, 2026. He made similar points on The Expansion Pass podcast in October 2026.

Is the PS6 going to cost $1,000 or more?

Nobody knows yet. Sony has not announced a price. The $1,000 and $1,200 figures come from analysts and from Layden's examples, not from Sony.

How much does a PS5 cost now?

After Sony's April 2, 2026 increase, US prices were $599.99 for the PS5 Digital Edition, $649.99 for the PS5 with a disc drive and $899.99 for the PS5 Pro. Check the PlayStation Store for the current price in your country.

Why hasn't Sony made Bloodborne 2?

According to Layden, the main obstacle is rights. Sony, FromSoftware and FromSoftware's parent company Kadokawa would all need to agree on any sequel or remaster.

Sources

• GamesRadar+: PS6 doesn't need more power, ex-PlayStation boss says (November 7, 2026)
• GamesRadar+: Layden on a PS6 handheld and launching two devices at once
• GamesRadar+: Layden on The Expansion Pass about $1,000 consoles (October 4, 2026)
• Insider Gaming: Shawn Layden on why Bloodborne 2 hasn't happened (November 5, 2026)
• Fox Business: Sony raises PS5 prices amid memory chip shortage (March 30, 2026)