PS6 will be about power, not the cloud — and that’s a smart move

I’ve been watching this whole cloud gaming conversation get louder over the last few years. People keep saying things like “the next console will be the last,” or “we’ll all be streaming on phones soon.” But after Sony’s latest business presentation, it's clear they’re not buying into that hype just yet. The PS6, whatever it ends up looking like, will still be a proper, powerful box sitting under your TV—and I’m all for it.

When I first heard that question dropped during the Sony event—whether the next PlayStation might go all-in on the cloud—I braced for bad news. Cloud gaming has come a long way, sure. I’ve messed with Xbox Cloud Gaming and tried NVIDIA’s GeForce Now. They’re good. Fast internet helps, but you still feel the latency. I can’t imagine playing a sweaty Elden Ring boss fight or high-rank Tekken match while praying my connection doesn’t hiccup. That’s the thing. The dream of cloud gaming sounds great, but reality is still too inconsistent. Not long ago, we were talking about other Sony devices, like the new portable PlayStation and how it’s likely to be less powerful than the PS5 in order to offer more mobility. But for now, let’s get back to PS6 hardware.

Sony's response made it clear they get that. Hideaki Nishino, the company’s platform business CEO, basically said the quiet part out loud: players still want games to run locally. Cloud gaming is nice, he admitted, but it's not the core experience most people want when they boot up a console. And as someone who’s dumped hundreds of hours into local installs, from Bloodborne to Helldivers 2, that resonates with me.

"Cloud gaming is increasingly providing an additional option for players to access content, but our belief is that the majority of players continue to want to play and experience gaming through local execution without dependency on network conditions."

It’s a blunt statement, and it lands because it’s true.

Formally speaking, Sony’s next-gen vision was shared during a 2025 business strategy meeting. Nishino confirmed that while cloud gaming is progressing well from a technical angle, major hurdles like network reliability and latency keep it from becoming the primary way most players consume games. This perspective was backed by Sony’s belief that the PlayStation 5—and its recent Pro model—prove the continued relevance of high-performance, local gaming hardware.

Is it worth buying a PlayStation at all? Take a look at the list of all the State of Play announcements this June to understand what awaits the console soon. It's not exactly impressive, but there's still something to play.

In contrast to companies like Microsoft, which has been investing heavily in cloud-native services, Sony is taking a more grounded path. The company is emphasizing ecosystem growth across PS5 and PS4 while keeping hardware performance at the center of its identity. That doesn’t mean cloud streaming will disappear from PlayStation—Sony already supports PS Plus cloud play—but it won’t become the foundation for the PS6.

And honestly, if you’ve ever tried streaming Returnal on hotel Wi-Fi, you already know why that matters.

There’s more here than just technical limitations, too. Local hardware gives you ownership—or at least the illusion of it. With physical discs or fully downloaded games, you don’t worry about server availability, stream resolution drops, or bandwidth caps. A PS6 with stronger hardware means developers can still push massive open worlds, fast loading, detailed destruction systems, and real-time AI without worrying whether it’ll work over 5G in rural Canada.

Sure, cloud gaming is blowing up for good reason. It’s accessible. You can play high-end games on low-end devices. You don’t need a $600 console or $2000 PC. All you need is a screen, a controller, and a solid connection. That’s game-changing for a lot of people, especially in countries where console prices are too high. Xbox Game Pass is proof that streaming can open up gaming to new audiences. And that’s a good thing.

But it’s not everything.

Sony bets that the PS6 can do both: deliver the big-budget, hardware-heavy experiences core gamers crave, while still offering streaming options for flexibility. It’s not an “either-or” situation. But the hardware-first strategy feels like a promise that PlayStation won’t forget what made its platform successful in the first place: top-tier exclusives running at max performance on real machines, not virtual ones.

And if you're wondering when we'll actually see the PS6, don't hold your breath. Shuhei Yoshida, former head of PlayStation Studios, recently hinted that 2028 feels like a natural release year. That lines up with the typical console cycle—around seven years—and gives Sony plenty of time to refine its tech while watching the cloud evolve. Last year, they dropped the PS5 Pro as a mid-gen refresh, and while some rumors pointed to Intel chips, AMD is reportedly still handling the PS6's internals.

So yeah, the future isn’t quite floating in the cloud just yet. And for those of us who still like the hum of a console booting up and the feel of solid framerates offline, that’s very welcome news.