Intel reportedly lost the PlayStation 6 chip contract to AMD in 2022, Reuters has reported.
Sources told Reuters that Intel lost to AMD in the bidding process to supply the design for the forthcoming PS6 chip (PlayStation 5 uses a custom chip designed by AMD). Sony has yet to announce the PS6, and failed to respond to requests for comment on the report.
The contract, which is worth billions of dollars in revenue, is now with rival AMD, which also fended off competition from Broadcom. While AMD declined to comment, Intel issued a statement, saying: "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."
As Reuters pointed out, moving from AMD to Intel for the PS6 chip “would have risked backwards compatibility,” which was reportedly a subject of discussion between Intel and Sony engineers and executives during the contract talks. Apparently maintaining backwards compatibility while switching to Intel “would have been costly and taken engineering resources.”
The news comes hot on the heels of Sony’s controversial PS5 Pro announcement, which has raised eyebrows over its $700 price. But when might the PS6 come out? The PS4 came out November 2013, and the PS5 seven years later, in November 2020. If this pattern repeats itself, the PS6 will come out November 2027. One game that may be set to launch on PS6 is Physint, Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima’s long-awaited return to the “action espionage” genre.
Sony itself has said sales of the PS5 will fall as the console enters the second half of its life cycle. Rather than cut the price of the PS5, Sony has in fact raised its price in some markets. As of the end of June, Sony had sold 61.8 million PS5s.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
