Just as it starts to feel like this generation is about to pick up steam, AMD CEO Lisa Su is telling us to start getting ready for a whole new generation of consoles in three years time.
During an interview with CNBC‘s Jim Cramer, Su said that AMD is working with both Microsoft and Sony on both their respective consoles. Su says, “they have their own secret sauce that we’re helping them do. It is possible that Su was simply referring to the Xbox One and PlayStation 4, but considering the rumors that are now starting to consistently come to the surface regarding a new generation of platforms, it seems Su could have been hinting at the future.
As for Nintendo’s consoles, the two companies parted ways a few years ago when Nintendo chose to go for Nvidia’s mobile technology for their new Switch console. Su doesn’t see this as a big loss, however.
“People need more computing horsepower,” Su told Cramer. “Just think about gaming these days with double-digit growth. Whether you’re talking about game consoles or you’re about PC gaming or you’re talking cloud gaming, all of these markets like higher computing power and that’s a great place for us to be.”
Su then mentions later that AMD is currently investing fairly heavily into new gaming technology that will not be seen for about three to five years. Three years seems to line up with Sony’s thinking as they have already confirmed that 2021 is when the company expects new PlayStation hardware to drop.
However, Microsoft revealed at E3 2018 that there will be different versions of the next Xbox: one that is a traditional hardware that downloads games locally (codenamed Scarlett) and one that is a cheaper, cloud-based device that will stream games from the internet (codenamed Scarlett Cloud). The company believes these to be released before the end of 2020, which would put it a little earlier than AMD’s predictions. Microsoft has commented that these plans are still subject to change, so perhaps the company is just being ambitious at the moment.
When do you think Sony and Microsoft’s new consoles are coming? Is it too soon for a new generation? Sound off in the comments below!
