Sony has contracted AMD for PlayStation 6, report claims

Sony has contracted AMD to design and fabricate the PlayStation 6’s chip, due to the company’s prioritisation of backwards compatibility, it’s claimed.

According to Reuters sources, AMD landed the contract through a competitive bidding process which took place during 2022, that eliminated others such as Broadcom and Intel.

AMD also created the custom system on a chip (SoC) for PlayStation 5 and the forthcoming PS5 Pro, and according to Reuter’s sources, this was a crucial point in Sony’s decision for PlayStation 6.

“Moving from AMD, which made the PlayStation 5 chip, to Intel would have risked backwards compatibility, which was a subject of discussion between Intel and Sony engineers and executives,” the publication claims.

“Ensuring backward compatibility with prior versions of the PlayStation would have been costly and taken engineering resources. Allowing PlayStation users to play games they have purchased for older systems is a feature Sony often includes in a next-generation system.”

Rival chip maker Intel reportedly met with Sony in 2022, including meetings between the two companies’ CEOs, dozens of engineers and executives.

A dispute over how much profit Intel would take from each chip sold blocked it from settling on a price with Sony, it’s claimed.

In response to Reuters’ reporting, an Intel spokesperson said: “We strongly disagree with this characterization but are not going to comment about any current or potential customer conversations.

“We have a very healthy customer pipeline across both our product and foundry business, and we are squarely focused on innovating to meet their needs.”

Sony and Broadcom did not respond to requests for comment. AMD declined to comment.

According to documents published as part of the court battle over Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard acquisition, Sony doesn’t expect to launch its next-gen console until 2028 at the earliest.