Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Computing
  3. News

AMD bullish on Xbox Series X, PlayStation 5 sales despite coronavirus

Chuong Nguyen
By

At its second quarter earnings call, AMD expressed optimism about the upcoming console launch, still set for holiday 2020.

While many businesses are facing a tremendous amount of uncertainty as the world continues to grapple with the coronavirus pandemic, AMD seems confident in its upcoming processor launches to pull it through the rest of the year. The company had a stellar fiscal first quarter of 2020 driven by a strong performance of its Ryzen 4000 mobile launch. It’s now looking forward to the second half of this calendar year for the Microsoft’s Xbox Series X and Sony’s PlayStation 5 to help drive the company’s growth during the holiday season.

Recommended Videos

“We expect semi-custom revenue to increase in the second quarter and be heavily weighted towards the second half of the year as we ramp production to support the holiday launches of the new PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X consoles,” AMD CEO Lisa Su said during her company’s earnings call, noting that these consoles will be among the biggest product launches of the year.

Related

The company stated that revenue from its console chip business was very negligible in the quarter that just ended, as partners Microsoft and Sony both are looking to reduce inventory ahead of next-generation console launches.

“We expect to see console gross margins improve as we go through the year,” Su added. “Usually what happens is that the second quarter is the first ramp for the consoles, and so the margins start a little bit lower and continues to ramp as we go through the year.”

Microsoft

Ahead of the highly anticipated Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 launches, both Microsoft and Sony have given rare glimpses into the performance of their consoles. Microsoft revealed that the semi-custom GPU developed with AMD in its Xbox Series X console is rated for 12 teraflops of performance, which could put most gaming rigs to shame, And Sony’s PlayStation 5 won’t be far behind in raw performance, coming in with a GPU that’s capable of 10.3 teraflops of computing power. The processors in both consoles will be based on AMD’s RDNA 2 architecture.

AMD is relying on these technology wins to help mitigate the challenges created by the global pandemic. Both consoles are still expected to be available for purchase this holiday season.

“Although there are some near-term uncertainties in the demand environment, we are well-positioned to navigate through this situation,” Su said. “We have a solid financial foundation, and our product portfolio is very well positioned across the PC, gaming, and data center markets.”

AMD claimed that it was able to “quickly [adopt its] global operations to navigate pockets of supply chain disruption and addressed geographic and market demand shifts caused by COVID-19.” The company did not disclose the extent of COVID-19’s impact on its supply chain, but during this most recent quarter, AMD saw its revenue increase 73% year-over-year driven by increased Ryzen and Radeon processor adoption.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Chuong Nguyen
Chuong Nguyen
Computing Writer
Silicon Valley-based technology reporter and Giants baseball fan who splits his time between Northern California and Southern…
I miss the golden age of oddball, first-party PlayStation exclusives
gamescom 2012 ps vita announcements playstation tearaway media molecule

While PlayStation continues to thrive thanks to big-budget games like God of War Ragnarok, two recent events show how much Sony's video game brand is changing. The first came when the Sony-owned studio Media Molecule would end support for Dreams, a PS4-exclusive experience creation tool allowing players to build and share games with one another, later this year.

Shortly after that news, PixelOpus -- another Sony-owned studio -- announced it would be shutting down on June 2 after publishing just two titles: Entrwined in 2014 and Concrete Genie in 2019. In its tweet, PixelOpus stated "Dear friends, our PixelOpus adventure has come to an end. As we look to new futures, we wanted to say a heartfelt thank you to the millions of passionate players who have supported us, and our mission to make beautiful, imaginative games with heart. We are so grateful!"

Read more
3 big things I need to see from the next PlayStation Showcase
Peter and Miles from Marvel's Spider-Man 2.

It’s that time of the year again when industry insiders are teasing that a big PlayStation Showcase will happen around June. A third-party focused State of Play happened in 2022, but now Video Games Chronicle’s Andy Robinson and Giant Bomb’s Jeff Grubb are both suggesting that a more first-party oriented "Showcase" could be on the way sometime during the next month, potentially during the week of May 25.
PlayStation has had a rough start to 2023, with console exclusive Forspoken garnering mixed reviews, the PlayStation VR2 impressing critics while underperforming in sales, and The Last of Us Part 1’s PC port being broken at launch. With only Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 confirmed to be on the horizon for 2023, Sony has a lot to prove during its next showcase. There are three specific things I need to see from Sony if that PlayStation Showcase does come to fruition.
Give PSVR2 purpose
The PlayStation VR2 is an impressive piece of virtual reality technology, but it lacks killer apps outside of Horizon: Call of the Mountain. New game releases for the headset have been slow since its February 2022 launch, which is likely why the $550 headset has underperformed. Sony has opted to mainly relegate PSVR2 to State of Plays or PlayStation Blog posts, but it needs to revitalize excitement for the platform by giving some of its games a spotlight in a big PlayStation Showcase.

Hopefully, there’s more on the way in terms of new AAA VR exclusives from first-party studios, as well as much-demanded ports like Half-Life: Alyx. Already announced PSVR2 games like Journey to Foundation and Synapse could also use release dates. A PlayStation Showcase is the perfect time for Sony to put out a clear road map for PSVR2’s future game library, just as the September 2021 PlayStation did for PS5. Give me a reason to strap on that headset yet again.
Flesh out the system’s 2023 exclusives lineup
PS5 needs a strong lineup for this fall as well. With the exception of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, things look pretty barren for PS5 this year after the launch of Final Fantasy XVI. Several previously announced PS5 games still lack concrete release dates and could arrive in the second half of this year. It’d be nice to get a clearer picture of Sony’s PS5 game lineup for the rest of the year; hopefully, it includes titles like Stellar Blade, the Silent Hill 2 remake, Lost Soul Aside, Death Stranding 2, and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth.

Read more
The best Xbox Series X games for 2023
Two Spartans side by side in Halo Infinite.

After an uneven console cycle with the Xbox One, Microsoft's latest consoles are aimed at getting the ship back on course. The Xbox Series X is a next-generation powerhouse that rivals gaming PCs, while the Xbox Series S is an affordable stopgap for those who are curious about trying new games.

There's no shortage of games to play on either console thanks to Xbox Game Pass, which gives players immediate access to a library of titles old and new. That built-in catalog is an extra value on top of all the new games available on the system that take advantage of its impressive technical specs. When it comes to first-party exclusives, the Series X is still growing. Halo Infinite and Forza Horizon 5 gave a good boost to the console's library following a somewhat sparse first year. More games are also on the way. Microsoft's Bethesda acquisition will bring exclusives like Starfield and the potential addition of all Activision Blizzard games would further bolster that list, but the console's real strength lies in third-party support.

Read more