According to Reuters, In 2022, Intel lost a contract to design and manufacture a chip for the Sony PlayStation 6. This was a significant blow to the company’s contract manufacturing.
Sony consoles have been selling more than 100 million units for a decade and a half. For a processor developer, the console segment can bring less profit than, for example, artificial intelligence chips, but it is a stable long-term business based on previously developed technologies. Cooperation with Sony Intel would have helped, which is currently struggling to find new large customers for contract manufacturing.
At the time, Intel and AMD were the two finalists in Sony’s tender. According to sources, Intel was unable to agree with Sony on the price of chips for of new PlayStation. In 2022, discussions between Sony and Intel lasted for months and included meetings between the CEOs of both companies, dozens of engineers, and executives.
In addition, the design of Sony’s console chips usually involves backward compatibility — to run older games on newer hardware. According to sources, the switch from AMD to Intel processors contained risks for backward compatibility, which was the subject of discussion between engineers and executives from both companies. Ensuring backward compatibility with previous versions of the PlayStation in the case of Intel would have been expensive and would have required engineering resources.
Intel has already responded to the Reuters report, in particular to the part about the problems of contract manufacturing of chips. A company spokesperson said: «We strongly disagree with this characterization, but we are not going to comment on any existing or possible negotiations with customers. We have a very healthy customer base in both the product and lithography businesses, and we are fully focused on innovation to meet their needs».
Sony and Broadcom, which according to the agency also participated in the tender, did not respond to requests for comment. AMD declined to comment.