With the rising prices of consoles and PlayStation going digital-only, I predict the PS6 will see Sony crash and burn. This is mainly because of the rising price of game consoles. But going all-digital definitely doesn't help them. The console market has always been sensitive to pricing. When the 3DS and Vita both launched at nearly double the traditional $120 mark for handheld consoles, we saw that market collapse. I'm predicting a similar collapse for both Sony and Xbox with their lifetime sales being cut in half from the current generation. Helix will sell a little under 18 million units lifetime. PS6 will be just under 50 million. 

Everything you said + if the consumer doesnt see a need to upgrade (graphics, pricing, second hand market, services) it will be a very hard sell. There are still many people playing on PS4 to this day. Its going to be a hard sell to get people to move from PS5 to PS6, especially when PS5 has many games that can be purchased second hand.

They definitely face an uphill battle as component prices rise, players stick with older hardware for longer and longer, and kids/young adults increasingly turn to cheaper alternatives.

I wouldn't count them out, but the coming generation will arguably the steepest hurdle Sony have faced yet.

Depends almost entirely on pricing, so without knowing when things will improve impossible to say.

Right now I don't see any hardware doing very well over the next couple of years at least. 2027 is going to really suck.

This is the industry widely. Unless hardware goes back to being accessible there isn't a bright future... If the Switch 2 becomes $599 in 2027/28 it's also not passing 100m.

Feels a tad bit early to be predicting what could be a decade (or more) long console generation. Depends fully on whether Sony gives their player base good exclusives, at what rate, and how this whole chip fiasco settles out (though being that all of this is happening without even the War in Taiwan having broken out… um yeah not good).

At a $1200USD initial price tag that goes up to e.g. $1800USD by the end of an 8 year long generation, then yeah it’ll certainly be a struggle to top 50M. But if the price stays somewhat near to $1200USD for a 12 year generation? Then perhaps we’d be looking at closer to 80-90M.

That said: Just for grins and giggles, I’ll give a swing and say PS6 settles somewhere in the 45-55M region assuming an 8ish year console generation.

2028 is hopefully the turning point where things start recovering, if not the console industry is in massive trouble.

Switch 2 and PS5 are both likely to get further price rises within the next year. PS5 was keeping up with PS4 but now matching it doesn't seem possible at all.

Switch 2 we could actually be in a situation where it's sales decline in it's second year and further in its third year.

Switch 2 being $599 this time next year is a very real possibility as is PS5 going up to the $799 mark.

Things are bleak.

Yeah my prediction is largely dependent on the PS6 being $800 at launch. If it's $1200 we will see even worse lifetime sales. If it's $600 we will see something like 70 million units sold. 

I'd like to add that I absolutely do not see PS5 or PS6 doing better than their predecessors for lifetime sales. There's a solid 10-20% of Sony enthusiasts that will drop the brand like a rock once they go all-digital. Sony will also lose out on billions in free advertising, marketing, and word-of-mouth sales that happen due to physical games still being around. This loss of free promotion will hit the tail-end of PS5 pretty hard as well as the PS6 launch. Lots of early adopters just won't show up on launch day due to no physical disks. 

30 million max, you are being very generous. Oh, trendforce suggests components costs will go up come Q3.

It's 2029. The PS6 costs $900 (Up from a launch price of $800). Wal-Mart, Target, Bestbuy, etc. don't have a dedicated Playstation or Xbox section. Tucked beneath the TVs or Laptops section are a couple PS6 systems and Helix systems, almost forgotten. Some locations don't even sell the systems anymore. There's no physical PS6 or Xbox Helix games for $30 on Amazon. Every game is locked to $69.99 from launch until the end of time ala Nintendo's new game prices. Both systems are doing horribly and neither of the CEOs can figure out why.