Sorry Sony Fans, the PS6 May Be Even More PC Than Console, Too

There have been more than a few strong hints the next-gen Xbox will effectively be a PC with a big Xbox logo emblazoned on its chassis. As if gaming systems weren’t already looking very similar, PlayStation’s lead architect, Mark Cerny, has effectively said that Sony’s next-gen hardware—let’s just call it the PS6 for now—will break away from the old mold of proprietary, custom chipsets. The end result will be a more open console that may leave any thoughts of system “exclusives†by the wayside.

Cerny has already effectively confirmed there is new PlayStation hardware in the works. These next-gen console efforts will likely combine with “Project Amethyst,†an initiative alongside chipmaker AMD to develop new upscaling and other AI technology “across a variety of devices.†Sony is working on getting the full FidelityFX Super Resolution 4 suite onto its next hardware. With that will come a complete redesign of the console’s guts.

“Developers can create their technology with the understanding that it will work across multiple platforms such as desktops, laptops, consoles, etc., there will be much larger pickup of new features,†Cerny told Digital Foundry. In a recent fireside chat with AMD’s general manager of computing and graphics, Jack Huynh, both AMD and PlayStation’s leadership claimed the next-gen device will have more capable graphics and power efficiency thanks to the redesigned GPU and machine learning capabilities.

The actual machine learning technology Cerny is talking about will vary. Alongside “next-gen upscaling and denoising technologies,†most of what’s been mentioned won’t be apparent to most players. The system’s GPU may be able to use machine learning for pixel shaders with so-called “neural texture compression†to reduce VRAM usage. Some of this may be more overt with full chatbots built into your console experience. Sony already showed off early tests with this tech. To say the community was underwhelmed with those tests may be an understatement. If my time with Xbox’s similar Gaming Copilot feature says anything about large language models (LLMs) in games, it’s that in-game AI will be pointless at best and obtrusive at worst.

PlayStation wants to share all games with PCs

Either way, AMD is working with both Microsoft and Sony on their next-gen consoles. The PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X were practically equivalent in performance. Both housed custom RDNA 2 GPUs, though with small differences in clock speeds and compute units (AMD’s core clusters). The next-gen Xbox may have a much larger SoC, or system on a chip, than what’s coming to the PlayStation 6 or supposed PlayStation handheld device. That will likely mean it’s much more powerful, though more expensive.

Sure, whatever comes next will still look like PlayStation (whether or not the PS6 will have the PS5 whale fins is another matter), but underneath the hood it will have the kind of technology that makes PCs hum. Based on Cerny’s comments, this seems like an attempt to make developing for PC and PlayStation at the same time far easier. Sony’s once-exclusive PlayStation titles have sold well on PC, so well that they now account for approximately a third of Sony’s first-party game revenue, as of September this year.

It’s clear the PC audience who never planned to buy a PS5 want these games. Earlier this month, leaker Amethxst on X posted a screenshot of supposed symbols that Sony plans to add to the PlayStation Store, including a “Cross-Buy†logo that hints at the Xbox-like capability to play a game on both PC and PS5.

I didn’t think this and @Zuby_Tech‘s post would go viral, so:
– The screen is real (see video below)
– The symbols are present on PS5 (not PS4)
– The symbols are official Sony ‘fonts’ (uf-code: EF5B to EF61)

You can see them yourself by searching for my ID: yAmethxst https://t.co/abU35ihfHG pic.twitter.com/xz6e5u14v6

— Amethyst (@yAmethxst) November 4, 2025

We may get to the point where Sony’s developers release games concurrently on future PlayStation devices and PC. That’s not to say what Sony and AMD are cooking up isn’t enticing. AMD’s latest APU, or accelerated processing units, are already as strong as they are for gaming. The only lingering question is if the next-gen PS6 can be affordable enough that players won’t just go out and buy an equivalent PC.