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Nvidia Walked Away From PS4 Hardware Negotiations

Posted by Soulskill on from the sony-forced-to-console-themselves-with-amd dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Tony Tamsai, Nvidia's senior vice president of content and technology, has said that providing hardware for use in the PlayStation 4 was on the table, but they walked away. Having provided chips for use in both the PS3 and the original Xbox, that decision doesn't come without experience. Nvidia didn't want to commit to producing hardware at the cost Sony was willing to pay. They also considered that by accepting a PS4 contract, they wouldn't have the resources to do something else in another sector. In other words, the PS4 is not a lucrative enough platform to consider when high-end graphics cards and the Tegra line of chips hold so much more revenue potential."

18 of 255 comments (clear)

  1. Console margins can't be good by h4rr4r · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You have to provide lots of parts at low cost and they will surely write in a lower price for each continued year of the console. That means you are tying up fab time on something is on an outdated process a few years down the road.

    On the other hand AMD had to do this, they need the money so any margin is likely acceptable.

    1. Re:Console margins can't be good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Money, yes but possibly also market share. People currently often write and test games only on nvidia hardware and then if it does not beak totally on AMD cards consider it done. With the differences between the cards this will give nvida a performance advantage in all games written this way, although I have no idea how much. AMD just turned the tables for all games written originally for the PS4, quite a win for PC ports of console games too I expect.

    2. Re:Console margins can't be good by Luthair · · Score: 4, Interesting

      This isn't really true, both the Xbox 360 and the Wii run AMD (well ATI) GPUs

    3. Re:Console margins can't be good by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 5, Funny

      Having all games (and thus their ports) on million and millions of xbox and PS consoles designed and optimized for your specific hardware for the next 10 years is worth money. Any profit they actually get is just icing.

      Quick, better call Nvidia and tell them this before they make a terrible, terrible mistake! Just say you're calling from Slashdot - they'll put you straight through to the CEO.

      --
      systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
    4. Re:Console margins can't be good by Nerdfest · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You're making the assumption that they thought about this. The people involved in the decision probably numbered in the dozens tops, with most of them marketing and finance people. With the way companies seem to be run to realize maximum profits in the short term these days, it's even possible they realized this but turned down the long term gain anyway.

    5. Re:Console margins can't be good by CanHasDIY · · Score: 5, Funny

      ... the Wii run[s] AMD (well ATI) GPUs

      Being rather generous, aren't we?

      If anything, I'd say the Wii 'casually strolls' the GPU. 'Run' is taking it a bit far.

      --
      An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
    6. Re:Console margins can't be good by dnahelicase · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You're making the assumption that they thought about this. The people involved in the decision probably numbered in the dozens tops, with most of them marketing and finance people. With the way companies seem to be run to realize maximum profits in the short term these days, it's even possible they realized this but turned down the long term gain anyway.

      Given the fact that we're talking about AMD and Nvidia, my guess is that it was a thoughtful decision.

      The fact that they have walked away before, that AMD is in previous consoles, and that everyone is continuously crying (from the tech world and wall street alike) that AMD is near it's end (even though it's not), it sounds like they might have made a good decision.

      AMD is going to spend a lot of time making a low margin product that is going to be outdated next year but one that they have to keep spending resources and time on for years. Nvidia is going to be spending their time on supercomputer applications, drivers, and pushing their image as a higher end card.

      Sometimes you walk away from a business deal because you want your competitor to win it.

  2. His name is Tony Tamasi, not Tamsai... by GrosTuba · · Score: 4, Informative

    Just sayin'...

    --
    Who needs a .sig anyway ?
  3. Hmm... by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I wonder how much of the 'opportunity cost/things we could have been working on instead' factor has to do with the fact that AMD is simply in a tighter spot than Nvidia, and how much it has to do with the fact that AMD already makes CPU/GPU combination packages(and seems interested in making more), while Nvidia has nothing of that sort except their 'Tegra', which might be a snappy mobile part; but is fundamentally punching in a different weight class(if nothing else, Sony's plans for 8GBs of RAM get a lot uglier on a 32-bit architecture. Yes, ARM also has something PAE-like; but PAE is mostly a hack that makes running multiple independent programs on a 32 bit system with more than 4GB of RAM palatable, not something you'd want to design a game engine around.)

    This isn't to say that Nvidia couldn't have done it(heck, what would buying VIA cost these days?); but Nvidia would need, essentially, an entire new flavor of product line for this job, while AMD, whether they call it this or not, is punching out a modestly customized APU, which almost certainly shares substantially with the ones that they sell for PCs.

  4. Public Relations.... by Luthair · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Why are people running a blatent self-serving PR story?

    We lost but... we didn't really want to win it anyway!

  5. Allegedly by Thanshin · · Score: 5, Funny

    They, Allegedly, walked away.

    Without video proof, we can't be sure they didn't strolled, strutted or even rambled away.

    1. Re:Allegedly by gman003 · · Score: 5, Funny

      Observers from the Ministry of Silly Walks have confirmed (to their disappointment) that their walk was one of the most serious ever recorded, and that they did not amble, dawdle, gambol, hustle, limp, meander, mosey, march, ramble, sashay, saunter, scamper, scurry, sidle, skulk, slink, slog, skip, stroll, stomp, strut, swagger, tiptoe, traipse. They did not even do a forward aerial half turn every alternate step with the left leg, which itself is hardly a silly walk at all.

  6. Re:Good Move. by Thanshin · · Score: 5, Funny

    I recently read a comment in slashdot that had a bizarre structure. The author gave his opinion by telling a story about how he gave that same opinion to a friend of his.

  7. Bullshit by DarthVain · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Considering AMD are producing the CPU chips for both platforms, and the the GPU as well, it isn't surprising that nVidia "walked" away. This is the eventual benefit of AMD buying ATI, in that they can produce both now. I have no doubt that AMD either have special consideration or simply could offer a better bid than nVidia could.

    Regardless of the profit, this would be a big feather in AMD's cap. AKA "We produce both the CPU and GPU of all modern game consoles, don't you want to buy our chips?". Also in the bigger scheme of things, if you get game developers in such numbers making games for YOUR video card on millions and millions of consoles for all games, which are ported to say PC, what do you think those games will be optimized for? AMD. Which will look better? AMD. This is something that is going to change things in a pretty large way over the next 10 years.

    nVidia should have paid money to be a part of this if only to prevent their rival in AMD from doing so. Perhaps they didn't have the money. More likely they think they have something that will make a difference. I doubt it.

    I'm not fired, I quit is the sentiment I feel about nVidia's statement...

    1. Re:Bullshit by Enderandrew · · Score: 4, Insightful

      This. I'm shocked no one else saw what was obvious here.

      AMD is providing a unified CPU/GPU on a single die that shares the same memory and bandwidth. For Nvidia to provide a separate GPU to compete at the same performance and price would be really difficult, if not impossible.

      --
      http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
  8. Re:Good Move. by MightyYar · · Score: 5, Funny

    This one time, at band camp, I stuffed a Slashdot comment up my flute.

    --
    W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
  9. Re:Wonder what they told MS by MBCook · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Can you? One of the reasons the original XBox was pulled off the market as soon as the 360 came out (and no slim was ever made) was because nVidia reportedly refused to do a die shrink or combine dies, etc. So MS was left with a big, hot, expensive chip while Sony was able to shrink theirs and lower their costs dramatically.

    MS might still hold a grudge on that one.

    --
    Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
  10. Re:dem Economics by dnahelicase · · Score: 5, Funny

    My thought is that tablets will allow us to extend games and make them portable. For example, I would have loved to have been able to play Skyrim on the PS3 and the Tablet: The PS3 at home and the Tablet when on the road. Saved games would be synched to the cloud, similar to what Steam does today, and downloaded to the tablet so that you could pick up where you left the game. The capabilities of tablets would have to improve quite a bit before this happens, but it is coming...

    I was thinking the same things as I was playing sim city the other day....man it would be nice if this game was synched to the cloud...