The eventual arrival of PlayStation 6 is, obviously, a foregone conclusion. As my colleague Josh noted back in October, YouTuber Moore’s Law Is Dead claims PS6 manufacturing is slated to begin in early 2027; he also got a quick jab in as to the fact that most console gamers would really rather wait a while longer since PS5 hasn’t really delivered a ton of fresh experiences yet. I’m with him there, but the show must go on.
MLID, as I’ll abbreviate the YouTube leaker henceforth, has said quite a few things about the PS6. The device will come in two forms, it’s been claimed – by more than a few people, in fact – a traditional console and a full-fledged handheld. We haven’t reported on everything that MLID and his fellow alleged insiders have said, but this next one’s worth spreading word on.
Take this stuff with a grain of salt, but I reckon it’s highly probable that he has, indeed, been contacted by actual developers. They’ve had some interesting insights into Sony’s bullishness on PlayStation 5’s recent low power mode… and the likely implications for PlayStation 6.
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“A Bit Annoyed”
That’s an image of the PlayStation Portal, in case you weren’t aware; I swear we don’t somehow have access to a PlayStation 6 handheld device. We’re not time travelers.
Anyway. MLID has had devs reach out to him of late, he says, and while he’ll justifiably not be citing them by name or anything, he’s done a fine job keeping things concise while offering their firsthand thoughts on what it all means. “This week,” one wrote to him, “we received emails from Sony pushing low-power mode hard… almost like they need us to support it directly eventually.” Sony went so far as to provide “tutorials and instructions.” “We shouldn’t jsut lower frame rates to fit [low power] mode’s requirements, no; instead we should try to maintain 60 FPS by lowering resolutions.”
MLID has a good point as to what this means, which the developer clearly concurs with: the focus on a decreased resolution fits like a glove with the heavily-rumoured handheld’s technical ambitions. If it’s a 1080p screen, or 1080p with intense 4K upscaling, then it’s going to look great on its own merits (well, probably). It’s the frame rate, then, that you’d want to lock down. This would be in sharp contrast to the console version of the next-gen hardware, which would aim to fit the increasingly common 4K availability alongside frame rates which are, hopefully, higher than 60 FPS. But 60 FPS is still a decent minimum.
“It is becoming glaringly obvious that low-power mode is a Trojan Horse for getting PS6 handheld support ready before its launch, and they honestly seemed a bit annoyed at how few devs directly support it so far.” -Anonymous developer to MLID
A bit annoyed, eh? Sony’s been marketing low-power mode as important for the environment, which is great and all, but MLID joins the chorus in suspecting it’s more for softly introducing something that’s going to be mandatory in due time for a very different reason. I’m reporting on a YouTuber who is, in turn, reporting on a developer whose own perception of the company’s irritation is thus presented, so it’s feasible that the dev got the wrong impression.
But it’s important to note that MLID is saying he’s had multiple devs reach out to him about this, so regardless of Sony’s tone of text-based “voice,” we’d have to throw aside all possible credibility to doubt that Sony isn’t pushing hard here for something which smells of links to PS6. The thing’s coming, in two form factors at that, whether any of us are ready to say goodbye to PlayStation 5 or not.
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