Yesterday a story ran below the radar which will have large repercussions for the console gaming industry. Call it a changing of the tide and the beginning of new partnerships. Microsoft has supposedly agreed to have AMD processors in the new Xbox console (rumoured to be called the 720) and Sony supposedly will also be using AMD processors for the new PlayStation 4.
This will mean that AMD will potentially have a lot of processors to manufacture as total units sold for both the Xbox and PlayStation is in the hundreds of millions. Suddenly AMD looks to be able to handle devices that do a lot of processing in a very short period of time which was a strength of a rival called ARM.
Is it the first case of one manufacturer supplying processors to 2 major competitors in a vertical? In console gaming it might be. The fact that Microsoft has moved a significant part of their business (console gaming) to a competitor for Intel speaks volumes on the changes Microsoft has done internally over the last 12 months. Can anyone have guessed that Microsoft would have gone this far to ensure that the Xbox 720 is a leader in the console space? I doubt it.
Are we beginning to see the parting of ways between Microsoft and Intel? Also if Sony uses AMD for the PlayStation 4, will production of these AMD processors be split between Microsoft and Sony? Many questions and little answers seem to be the order of the day with this rumor.
