PlayStation 6 reportedly set to include AMD chips to ensure support for backwards compatibility

by Danny Craig · 9/17/24, 1:53 PM
PlayStation 6 reportedly set to include AMD chips to ensure support for backwards compatibility
Sony

Sony has reportedly partnered with AMD to produce chips for the PlayStation 6 after its competitors couldn’t promise full backwards compatibility support.

The details:

  • As reported by Reuters, AMD secured the contract to manufacture the chips for the console in a bidding war back in 2022, beating out rivals Broadcom and Intel. According to the source, Sony's decision to collaborate with AMD was motivated by the desire to ensure backwards compatibility with PS4 and PS5 games. “Ensuring backward compatibility with prior versions of the PlayStation would have been costly and taken engineering resources,” the source claimed. “Allowing PlayStation users to play games they have purchased for older systems is a feature Sony often includes in a next-generation system.”

  • AMD has previously collaborated with Sony on the CPU and GPU chips for the PS4 and PS5, as well as the custom system on a chip (SoC) found in the PS5 and upcoming PS5 Pro. This meant that switching to Intel chips could have caused problems running older games, as IBM's processor in the PS3 led to technical issues when porting its games, limiting its library to only being available officially via cloud streaming. In order to ensure compatibility, it would have also required significant development time and high costs.

  • Following the report, an Intel spokesperson responded to the claims, while AMD declined to comment and Sony and Broadcom did not respond to the requests. "We strongly disagree with this characterisation but are not going to comment about any current or potential customer conversations," the Intel spokesperson said. "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."

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