The PS6 is in development with an emphasis on backwards compatibility, according to a fresh report by Reuters. We certainly weren’t expecting to see an unofficial announcement this morning, complete with details of a chip manufacturing bidding war for the console that took place between Intel and AMD.
Intel reportedly lost PS6 chip contract to AMD because of backwards compatibility
According to Reuters, back in 2022, Intel lost a major PS6 chip manufacturing contract to AMD for a number of reasons, one of which is backwards compatibility. Sony‘s executives and engineers discussed the risk of having backwards compatibility issues if it dropped AMD in favor of Intel, and it didn’t help that both companies reportedly bumped heads over how much profit Intel would make from each PS6 chip that it sold.
As a result, Sony and Intel couldn’t settle on a price, leaving the door open for AMD to stay as PS6’s choice of chip manufacturer following its success with the PS5. Reuters says that the loss of contract dealt a huge blow to Intel, and sought a comment from the company, which provided the statement below:
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.
Reuters says that AMD and Sony did not respond to its request for comment.