PS6 could launch with just 1TB SSD and no disc drive to keep costs down
Sony 's PlayStation 6 may ship with less storage than some fans are hoping for. According to a recent leak, the console is likely to feature a 1TB Gen5 SSD and drop the disc drive entirely—a deliberate move to keep the bill of materials manageable.
The details come from AMD insider KeplerL2 on NeoGAF, via Insider Gaming, who had previously estimated Sony's cost per unit at around $760. With a "reasonable subsidy," he suggested a $699 retail price is achievable—though he noted Sony may not bother since Xbox "is not direct competition anymore."
When asked whether that $760 figure accounted for a 1TB or 2TB drive, KeplerL2 was blunt: 1TB SSD , no disc drive . His reasoning? "It's the most obvious area to cut costs."
A 150GB game shrunk to 21GB—that's the tech Sony is counting onThat storage figure stings a little when modern games routinely cross the 100GB mark. But KeplerL2 threw in an interesting caveat—if the PS6 SDK supports neural texture compression, game sizes could actually end up smaller than PS5 titles.
That's not as far-fetched as it sounds. NVIDIA's Neural Texture Compression technology, which already supports AMD hardware, has shown early results compressing a 150GB game down to roughly 21GB. That's a 7x improvement over the current BC7 standard. Whether Sony leans on AMD's own Neural Texture Block Compression or NVIDIA's version remains unclear.
Ditching the disc drive also isn't a shock. The PS5 Digital Edition launched in 2020, and the PS5 Pro went disc-free by default too. The physical game market has been shrinking steadily since.
What is a little surprising is the storage staying flat at 1TB—the same as base PS5 models—especially with game sizes only trending upward. Sony is clearly betting on compression tech to bridge that gap. Whether it delivers in time for a 2027 launch is the real question.
The details come from AMD insider KeplerL2 on NeoGAF, via Insider Gaming, who had previously estimated Sony's cost per unit at around $760. With a "reasonable subsidy," he suggested a $699 retail price is achievable—though he noted Sony may not bother since Xbox "is not direct competition anymore."
When asked whether that $760 figure accounted for a 1TB or 2TB drive, KeplerL2 was blunt: 1TB SSD , no disc drive . His reasoning? "It's the most obvious area to cut costs."
A 150GB game shrunk to 21GB—that's the tech Sony is counting onThat storage figure stings a little when modern games routinely cross the 100GB mark. But KeplerL2 threw in an interesting caveat—if the PS6 SDK supports neural texture compression, game sizes could actually end up smaller than PS5 titles.
That's not as far-fetched as it sounds. NVIDIA's Neural Texture Compression technology, which already supports AMD hardware, has shown early results compressing a 150GB game down to roughly 21GB. That's a 7x improvement over the current BC7 standard. Whether Sony leans on AMD's own Neural Texture Block Compression or NVIDIA's version remains unclear.
Ditching the disc drive also isn't a shock. The PS5 Digital Edition launched in 2020, and the PS5 Pro went disc-free by default too. The physical game market has been shrinking steadily since.
What is a little surprising is the storage staying flat at 1TB—the same as base PS5 models—especially with game sizes only trending upward. Sony is clearly betting on compression tech to bridge that gap. Whether it delivers in time for a 2027 launch is the real question.
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