As Sony has already confirmed, the PlayStation 4's graphics will be powered by AMD. Rival tech company Nvidia has assured that this was merely a decision based on cost and not technology.
"I'm sure there was a negotiation that went on," Tony Tamasi, Nvidia's Senior VP of content and technology told GameSpot, "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."
Nvidia doesn't seem too broken up about the decision. Tamasi explained that by working on a new console, other portion's of the business would suffer. "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," Tamasi concluded, before adding, "It's clearly not a technology thing."
Rumor has it that AMD has also secured the deal to use its technology in the next-gen Xbox as well, which means Nvidia is totally out of the console picture. AMD can certainly use the business. The company reported an operating loss of $131 million in its quarterly earnings report. Nvidia, meanwhile, posted a profit of $174 million in its latest earnings call.
[GameSpot]
