Prediction - PS6 will not be designed to replace the PS5.

[Kyuu]

Hardstuck-Platinum said:

Norion said:

A lot of the posts in this thread are not taking into account the massive elephant in the room that being the potential impact of AI in the coming years. With Genie 3 being a huge leap over Genie 2 with just an 8 month gap the video game industry could change a lot soon depending on how much further that sort of tech improves over the next 5-10 years. Hardware that isn't AI capable enough could become obsolete fast.

Handhelds are so disadvantaged over dedicated home consoles that it doesn't matter what tech is in it, for 500$ or less the maximum they could achieve is PS5 performance. Look at Switch 2, it's completely limited to 30fps in third party titles despite launching 5 years after PS5/XBSS/X. There isn't going to be any magical AI tech that will allow a handheld to surpass the PS5 in a price point that competes with Switch 2. That's OK though, as they only need to achieve PS5 performance for it to be a viable platform. 

Sometimes it's a matter of timing. 2-3 years of tech advancement can result in marginal or huge results. A paradigm shift may occur out of nowhere. The handheld should be anywhere between 1/5th to 1/10th the power of PS6 depending on the prices and task. But the tech may advance to a point where the handheld leaves the PS5 in the dust in some tasks, it isn't a foregone conclusion that it'll be universally weaker than PS5. It might be priced higher than $500 too, with a cheaper "Vita TV" style variant. Lower profit margins per hardware (or higher losses) is also a possibility. There's too much we don't know yet.

What's so bad about having heavy games limited to 30fps in a handheld? Lower framerate is one way to get around hardware limitations without compromising the game's vision. People who don't like the lower fps/resolution/settings will just get the home console and enjoy the superior version, but options are nice and millions will love the handheld for what it is.