PlayStation 6 chip chosen in 2022, partly for backwards compatibility

By James On Sep 16, 2024

We already have the first information about Sony’s inevitable PlayStation 6: it will run on AMD chips, according to a report from Reuterswith chipmaker Intel losing the bid to produce chips for the next-gen PlayStation. One factor that reportedly swayed Sony to AMD was ensuring backwards compatibility with the current-gen PlayStation 5.

Sony’s PS5 has an AMD CPU — a custom AMD Zen 2 — and GPU — a custom AMD RDNA 2 for the base PS5, and RDNA 3 for the upcoming PlayStation 5 Pro. According to Reuters, the switch to Intel-made chips could jeopardize backwards compatibility, or at the very least make it more expensive for Sony’s engineers to support backwards compatibility. The PlayStation 4 was also powered by AMD-made processors.

PlayStation maker has a history of supporting backwards compatibility between consoles. The PlayStation 2 played original PlayStation games out of the box. Early versions of the PlayStation 3 also supported its two predecessors. Sony broke its backwards compatibility streak with the PS4, which did not support PS3 games out of the box but eventually provided access to them via emulation.

Reuters’ report about the PS6 would certainly indicate that Sony plans to support PS5 games on its next-gen console, which hasn’t been announced yet and doesn’t have a clear release window. Sony only announced the PS5 Pro last week, for a November launch. A PS6 console is almost certainly years away given the seven-year gap between the release of the PS4 and PS5.

Sony’s decision to go with AMD over Intel reportedly dates back to 2022. But the PlayStation maker likely started working on its PS5 successor long before then. According to Shawn Layden, former president of SIE Worldwide Studios, Sony typically “starts working on the next-generation platform almost the day after you ship the current generation.” In an interview with the What’s Up PlayStation PodcastLayden said, “The moment you launch a product, you already have a team at the back (…) working on the next version.”