Math doesn't care how many exclusives you've got lined up. According to hardware leaker KeplerL2, reported by VGC, RAM and storage alone for the PS6 could run Sony more than $680 per console, before the CPU, GPU, controller, cooling, assembly, or a single cent of retail margin gets added on. That's a leak, not a spec sheet, and it comes from one source with no official confirmation attached, so treat the number as a benchmark estimate rather than a receipt.

What isn't a rumor is Sony's own position. The company has said, as VGC reported, that it doesn't plan to sell hardware at significant losses while it's 'monitoring the market' with the PS6 in mind (translation: hoping memory prices cool down before the balance sheet notices). Pair that stance with an AI-driven RAM shortage and a $900 PS5 Pro already on shelves, and the arithmetic for a next-gen console gets uncomfortable fast.

Sony's other move this year was a $350 all-black PS5 sold exclusively in Japan, which IGN notes most people outside that market can't actually buy. Cheap and scarce isn't a pricing strategy, it's a press release.

Meanwhile the thing Sony is competing against just set a record nobody at PlayStation can match with a box under the TV. Steam logged over 43 million concurrent users in October, with roughly 14.5 million of those actually in-game, per Kotaku. No console refresh, no hardware subsidy, no memory shortage, just a storefront that keeps growing while people run the games on silicon they already own and can upgrade one part at a time.

If the PS6 lands at four figures to cover a leaked memory bill, plenty of PS5 owners currently eyeing their Steam library are going to do the obvious thing: nothing.