The PS6 Will Be All-Digital and May Use Neural Texture Compression

After increasing the prices of the PS5, with all variants costing more starting from April, Sony continues the development of the PS6 and seems to have taken a definite path regarding the technical specifications of the next-gen console.

Latest on the PS6

The new PS6 is expected to be made in an "all digital" version, meaning without a disc drive, similar to what happened with the PS5 Pro (while the PS5 is available in two versions, one with and one without a drive).

For the next generation, however, the disc drive is expected to be offered as a separately purchased accessory, providing Sony with an additional opportunity to increase profits related to hardware sales.

Moreover, the latest rumors confirm the presence of a 1 TB SSD. There shouldn't be variants with more storage space, at least until the debut of a future Pro variant.

To solve the problem of increasingly larger digital games, Sony is likely to resort to a file compression system such as Neural Texture Compression from NVIDIA, which can also be used on AMD hardware (Sony's console will use an AMD chip).

This way, the space taken up on the unit by PS6 games could be significantly reduced, with the possibility of even bringing a title from 150 GB to just over 20 GB.

The use of such technology is essential for Sony, enabling them to propose an "all digital" console with only 1 TB of space (limiting production costs and increasing margins).

The launch price of the PS6 could be around $699, with Sony absorbing some of the production costs, at least initially. It's worth noting that the PS5 Digital Edition, after the price update, costs $599.99.