Like its two predecessors, the PlayStation 6 console will be powered by an AMD chip, but that apparently wasn’t a guarantee until 2022, when Intel lost the bid to design Sony’s new system.
According to a new report from Reuters, Intel and AMD were the two final contenders in the bidding process for the contract. Reportedly, a dispute over how much profit would Intel make from each chip sold to Sony blocked Intel from settling on the price. AMD, on the other hand, got the contract through a competitive bidding process that eliminated other contenders until only Intel was left. Discussions between Intel and Sony went on for a few months in 2022 and involved meetings between the two companies’ CEOs, engineers, and executives.
Intel provided a comment to Reuters regarding the failed PlayStation 6 bid, saying that they “strongly disagree with this characterization but are not going to comment about any current or potential customer conversations.” AMD declined to comment.
While being unable to settle on a price played some role in the decision, compatibility concerns were also taken into consideration, as going from AMD to Intel for the PlayStation 6 would have put backward compatibility in jeopardy. This was a matter of discussion between engineers and executives from both companies.
As the PlayStation 6 is still years away from release, it is not surprising that we know very little about the system as of now. Earlier this year, we learned that Sony aims to make it the most powerful next-generation system and machine learning will play a big role in delivering what manufacturers are teasing as the biggest generational leap ever.