PlayStation 6 has been in development since 2022 and hardware is almost ready it’s claimed

SONY’S announcement of the PS5 Pro appears to have fallen flat, thanks to its high price tag and number of missing features.

At £700/$700 without a disc drive or stand, people are already looking to the PS6 as their next big PlayStation upgrade.

A new report by Reuters explains further details about the PS6’s development, and it might be coming sooner than we think.

The report claims that work on the PS6’s hardware began in 2022, just two years after the PS5 was originally released.

A number of companies reportedly bid for the job of designing and producing the chip that will be inside the next-generation hardware that same year.

AMD is said to have won the contract to develop the PS6's hardware over the next most likely candidate, Intel.

Reuters sources claim that Intel lost out on the bid due to a dispute over the profits Intel would take on each chip sold.

AMD currently holds the contract for the development of PS5 chips, so this recent report is very good news for PlayStation fans.

The most asked for feature across all generations of Sony’s consoles is backwards compatibility.

While a digital library of PlayStation’s older games is welcome, long-time fans usually have an existing collection of physical games from older generation consoles.

PlayStation first took a step back from backwards compatibility with the second iteration of the PS3, which could no longer play PS2 games.

Then the PS4 was released with zero backwards compatibility, and the fans were outraged that they’d have to keep their existing hardware to play their games.

Sony seemingly listened to these complaints and brought back backwards compatibility with the PS5 but only for PS4 games.

As AMD is already manufacturing the chips for the PS5, backwards compatibility on the PS6 is most likely if AMD is also developing chips for the PS6.

Reuters sources say that PS6 backwards compatibility was a key part of the discussion for Sony, which could be the reason that AMD had the edge in winning the contract.

This does not guarantee backwards compatibility for the PS6, but it seems a promising sign.

It is still unclear whether these discussions included PS4 compatibility as this is included in current PS5 chip designs, but it is a possibility.

Backwards compatibility with Sony’s older consoles seems highly unlikely though.

If you want to read more about PlayStation, check out how PS5 Pro accessories are already selling out.