Amidst all the upheaval and uncertainty brought about by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Microsoft and Sony have both remained insistent that the Xbox Series X and the PS5 respectively will be launching this year as planned, even as many have predicted that issues faced by production, manufacturing, and distribution lines might disrupt that. And with only a few months left before the two consoles come out, it goes without saying that production for both will also obviously be kicking into gear.
To that end, in AMD’s recent quarterly earnings call, CEO Lisa Su confirmed that the tech company would be ramping up production of chips soon in anticipation of the releases of the PS5 and the Xbox Series X, and that they expect the same to drive revenue going forward. Both upcoming next-gen consoles, in case you are unaware, are confirmed to be using their own custom versions of AMD’s Zen 2 CPU.
“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,” Su said.
We’re also in that period of time where new details on the two consoles, their releases, and their games will be coming in thick and fast. Microsoft are set to reveal various Xbox Series X games this Thursday, while rumours indicate they have another event planned for June as well, while another report suggests that Sony, too, will be revealing the PS5 in early June.
The PS5, interestingly enough, does seem to be facing production issues, according to some reports, to that extent to Sony might be releasing limited quantities of the console in its first wave upon launch. You can read more on that through here.
