LogInIt was "one of the most successful launches in AMD history."
PlayStation 4's release helped AMD avoid bankruptcy, according to Renato Fragale, the senior director at the semiconductor maker.
Powered by AMD's semi-custom Accelerated Processing Unit (APU), it was "one of the most successful launches in AMD history," he said on his LinkedIn page, describing his time as the senior manager of product development engineering. PS4 had sold over 106 million units by December 2019, which makes it the second best-selling console, following PS2.
PS4 was the first Sony console to use an AMD processor. Back in 2013, NVIDIA said it had passed on the opportunity to provide its components because it "didn't want to do the business at the price those guys were willing to pay" (via GameSpot).
"We had to look at console business as an opportunity cost. If we say, did a console, what other piece of our business would we put on hold to chase after that?" commented Tony Tamasi, Senior VP of content and technology. "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."
It looks like AMD did luck out in this partnership, although it's not clear how close to bankruptcy it really was at the time.
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