Industry insiders suggest that a $699 PlayStation 6 may still be theoretically possible, despite current hardware market conditions driving up component prices such as memory and storage.Shortly following that report, industry analyst Matt Piscatella predicted that both the Sony PlayStation 6 and the Xbox Helix consoles may cost as much as $999. He primarily attributes the price increase to the demand in the AI industry and rising hardware costs.Piscatella highlighted that there is considerable uncertainty in the current hardware market regarding both launch dates and pricing.Dr. Serkan Toto, CEO of consultancy firm Kantan Games, observed that with recent price increases in the PS5 lineup, Sony may have anticipated potential future fluctuations.This strategy could help the company avoid raising prices more frequently over an extended period.Toto predicts that a $999 price tag for at least one variant of the PS6 is not impossible, if current industry prices are any indication. This is possibly referring to a high-end PlayStation 6 Pro model.However, Joost van Dreunen, a video game professor at New York University, argues that the industry is quickly moving toward a world where a $1,000 console is the norm.He added that console gaming will soon become a luxury expenditure. Van Dreunen further predicts that next-generation consoles could start at a 50 percent higher price than the current ones.This means a $600 starting price for the base PS6 digital edition and around $750 for the disc drive model.On the Microsoft side, this would place the base Xbox Helix around $450, with the premium version costing approximately $750.Sony is also expected to release a standalone handheld console, often called the PlayStation Portable, but no pricing details are currently available for that device.