Insider reports say Sony is prepping multiple PS6 variants, with SDK power-saver defaults and 8-thread guidance hinting at a portable PlayStation 6 handheld.
© E. Vartanyan
Rumors of a portable PlayStation 6 have picked up fresh momentum. According to insider Moore's Law Is Dead, Sony is already preparing developers to work with different processor configurations — a move that indirectly points to plans for multiple next‑gen consoles, including a full-fledged PS6 and a handheld version.
Reports indicate that Sony has updated all PS5 development kits to SDK version 1.0 with mandatory support for a Power Saver mode. This mode now ships enabled by default and, sources say, takes precedence over tuning for the PS5 Pro. Some analysts read that emphasis as an effort to keep future releases comfortable on the more modest hardware a portable PS6 would likely use. The priority order itself hints that Sony wants efficiency baked in early.
The leak also states that Sony is recommending developers optimize their projects to run on just eight CPU threads. That guidance lines up with the rumored handheld PS6 setup: four energy‑efficient Zen 6c cores offering eight threads for gameplay, plus two extra low‑power cores reserved for background tasks. If accurate, it sketches a clear performance target for studios.
An additional nudge comes from documentation noting that games should be ready to launch across environments with varying CPU configurations. That signals a more diverse hardware lineup for Sony’s future consoles, and it nudges teams to account for those differences from the outset rather than treat them as late‑stage constraints.
While a PlayStation 6 launch is still a long way off and Sony has made no official statements, the leaks increasingly converge on a single idea: the company is indeed exploring several PS6 variants, including a handheld model that trades raw compute for battery life and portability. The direction looks deliberate, even if the finer details remain in flux.