Mark Cerny Hints at PlayStation 6 as Sony and AMD Tease Three Major Console Tech Breakthroughs

Mark Cerny, the architect behind the PlayStation 5, has set off a storm of PlayStation 6 speculation by openly referencing “a future console in a few years’ time” during a new video with AMD’s Jack Huynh. The conversation, published on the official PlayStation YouTube channel, gives fans the clearest sign yet that Sony’s next-generation console isn’t just a distant fantasy. In fact, the way Cerny frames it, Sony’s engineering team already has a vision and a tech roadmap to match.

Those remarks come near the end of a discussion focused on Project Amethyst, an ongoing partnership between Sony and AMD targeting radical advances in how games look and feel. Based on the technology the duo is previewing, the stakes for the so-called PS6 are nothing short of transformative.

Three Technologies To Shape PlayStation’s Future

The heart of the video is a breakdown of three AMD-driven breakthroughs that, according to Cerny and Huynh, are primed to change the way future PlayStation consoles handle graphics, memory, and real-time rendering. Let’s break down each one:

Neural Arrays promise to overhaul today’s upscaling methods like FSR and PSSR, both notorious for putting extra strain on the GPU. Instead of relying on a bunch of independent compute units, Neural Arrays allow them to “team up,” according to Huynh. Together, they can process tasks as a unified AI engine, handling large chunks of the screen all at once.

As Cerny puts it, “Neural Arrays will allow us to process a large chunk of the screen in one go. And the efficiencies that come from that are going to be a game changer as we begin to develop the next generation of upscaling and denoising technologies together.” For gamers, this essentially means sharper, cleaner visuals handled in real-time, using far fewer resources.

The next leap is Radiance Cores. These are all about delivering more advanced ray tracing that doesn’t drag down performance. Huynh describes Radiance Cores as “a new dedicated hardware block designed for unified light transport,” managing the heavy-lifting of ray and path tracing, and doing so far more efficiently.

He explains, “Radiance Cores take full control of ray traversal, one of the most compute-heavy parts of the process. And that frees up the CPU for geometry and simulation, and lets the GPU focus on what it does best, shading and lighting.” The result is a pipeline built to deliver smoother, more realistic lighting in next-gen ray-traced games, minus the slowdowns that have plagued earlier tech.

Universal Compression, the last of the trio, takes direct aim at the memory bottlenecks gamers and developers hit when pushing 4K textures or elaborate ray tracing maps. Instead of only compressing textures, Universal Compression “evaluates every piece of data headed to memory, not just textures, and compresses it whenever possible,” Huynh explains.

That means only the “essential bytes are sent out,” deeply reducing issues around memory bandwidth. The end result? The GPU can work with more information at once, delivering higher detail, improved frame rates, and better overall efficiency. For anyone who’s watched the trade-offs of recent console generations, this is potentially huge.

A Not-So-Subtle Tease for PlayStation 6

But it’s the close of the video that delivered the surprise fans will be talking about for months. Cerny, with a carefully measured optimism, signals that these breakthroughs aren’t on the distant horizon. “Overall, of course, it’s still very early days for these technologies. They only exist in simulation right now, but the results are quite promising and I’m really excited about bringing them to a future console in a few years’ time.”

If you’re doing the math, a “few years” points directly at a 2028 time frame, lining up with earlier rumours and industry timelines for a PS6 reveal. For now, there’s no official label, but Cerny’s phrasing is as close as Sony’s ever come to an outright preview of its next console generation.

Backing up this future-focused strategy, Sony is doubling down on custom hardware with the AMD partnership. Project Amethyst is about more than short-term play; it’s a public blueprint for how PlayStation plans to stay ahead as cloud gaming and hardware-agnostic platforms loom larger. Sony’s message is clear: the brand’s best experiences will still be anchored to cutting-edge consoles and the technology powering them.

If these early demos and simulations pan out, expect the PS6, or whatever it’s eventually named, to redefine what’s possible in real-time gaming, from smarter upscaling to truly cinematic lighting and seamless 4K worlds. The controller might still be familiar, but what’s happening inside the box could be a leap forward that the industry can’t ignore.

Possible PlayStation 6 Reveal Timeline

There’s no hard confirmation yet, but Cerny’s comments practically map out a release window for the next PlayStation. If AMD’s Project Amethyst features are as advanced and—as prioritised—as the YouTube video implies, Sony is determined to keep a hardware edge as competitors experiment with streaming and other delivery models.

Between the lines, Sony and AMD are hammering out the details right now. The future for console gaming looks packed with smarter hardware and even more ambitious visuals. Whether you’re following for the technology, the games, or just the thrill of what’s next, this is a turning point you’ll want to watch.