How AMD Secured The Sony Contract for the PlayStation 6

A recent report claims that AMD overcame tough competition to secure the Sony contract to design and create the chip for the upcoming PlayStation 6 console.

While there are iconic battles like the Battle for Middle-earth in The Lord of the Rings and Halo 2 ‘s Battle for Earth, another battle has been unfolding since 2022: the bidding war to create and design the PlayStation 6 chip. According to Reuters , AMD won the contract over Broadcom and Intel , with backwards compatibility being a key factor in Sony’s final decision.

The contract is expected to generate billions of dollars in revenue, so Sony had to consider many factors when choosing the right chip manufacturer. “ Moving from AMD, which made the PlayStation 5 chip , to Intel would have risked backwards compatibility, a topic of discussion between Intel and Sony engineers and executives,” Reuters reported. AMD also created the custom system on a chip (SoC) for the PlayStation 5 and the upcoming PS5 Pro .

The Reuters report continued, “Ensuring backward compatibility with prior versions of the PlayStation would have been costly and required significant engineering resources. Allowing PlayStation users to play games from older systems is a feature Sony often includes in next-generation consoles.”

AMD’s direct competitor reportedly met with Sony in 2022, with meetings involving the two companies’ CEOs, along with dozens of engineers and executives. According to the same reports, Intel and Sony struggled to agree on a fair profit margin for each chip Intel would produce.

An Intel representative responded to the Reuters report: “We strongly disagree with this characterization but are not going to comment on 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 have yet to release a full comment on the decision, and AMD declined to comment. Recent reports suggest that the PlayStation 6 will not be ready until around 2028.