Investing In PlayStation 4 Was Just Not Viable For Nvidia
Roshan Ashraf Shaikh / 12 years ago
Tony Tamasi, Nvidia’s Senior VP of content and technology spoke to GameSpot about Sony’s upcoming console PlayStation 4. The Console will use a custom-design APU made by AMD. It should also be noted that Nvdia wasn’t a part of Nintendo Wii U’s development and most likely the next Xbox from Microsoft maybe using AMD graphics.
It seems that Nvidia doesn’t want to be involved with next-gen console race. But in regards to PlayStation 4, the deal wasn’t inked because the company didn’t see potential to earn revenue after spending money and resources to have a project for designing custom chips for consoles. He also added that Nvidia is just too busy as they’re working on other projects such as Nvidia’s GRID for internet powered cloud gaming and Nvidia Shield for local cloud gameplay.
Tamasi said,”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 trade-offs.”
The first console from Microsoft used an 233MHz ASIC which was co-developed by Nvidia and Microsoft. Unfortunately, in 2002 this lead to a dispute over the pricing of the ASIC component. Microsoft also blamed Nvidia for violating the agreement.
Nvidia later was involved with PlayStation 3’s RSX Reality Synthesizer 550MHz GPU which allowed gameplay upto 1080p. So far, Nvidias only involvement has been for PhysX support in Wii U and PlayStation 4’s SDK.
He added,”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,” he said. “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.”
Via: Toms’ Hardware
