Ben-DutkaSony sided with Nvidia for the PlayStation 3 but for the PS4, the electronics giant opted to go with AMD instead.
Some wish Sony had stuck with Nvidia as AMD's reputation among tech-hounds has wavered over the past few years. But it seems Nvidia wanted too much money to design chips for the PS4, or so senior vice president of content and technology Tony Tamasi said. As he told GameSpot , they wouldn't sign on for the new generation due to the "opportunity cost:"
"I'm sure there was a negotiation that went on, and we came to the conclusion that we didn't want to do the business at the price those guys were willing to pay. Having been through the original Xbox and PS3, we understand the economics of [console development] and the tradeoffs."
Tamasi went on to say they're "building a whole bunch of stuff" and they had to look at the console business as an opportunity cost. It was a matter of priorities, it seemed. As he further explained:
"In the end, you only have so many engineers and so much capability, and if you're going to go off and do chips for Sony or Microsoft, then that's probably a chip that you're not doing for some other portion of your business. And at least in the case of Sony and Nvidia, in terms of PS4, AMD has the business and Nvidia doesn't. We'll see how that plays out from a business perspective I guess. It's clearly not a technology thing."
So is this a sign of Sony wanting to keep the manufacturing costs down? AMD may have simply been the cheaper option, as Nvidia demanded a higher number. Then again, maybe Sony merely opted to go the AMD route for multiple reasons, and cost was only one factor. What do you think?