Microsoft’s latest Xbox One gaming console has attracted both praise and scorn from gaming critics. The controversial console, which is aimed at providing a full-featured home media experience, won over home media lovers with its promises of a central media station, but frustrated gamers with its lack of concrete gaming prowess.
The latest Xbox has, however, produced a big win for one of the world’s largest PC processor manufactures. AMD, a company best known for its PC processors, will be Microsoft’s sole supplier for the eight-core Jaguar processor chipset that forms the hardware backbone of the new system.
It’s a major deal for AMD – one that’s valued at over $3 billion. Despite this, AMD has been amazingly silent on its involvement with the console. The company has put out no press releases, made no media statements, and remained completely silent about its involvement with Microsoft on the console.
The information, it seems, has come from one of AMD’s former insiders – a executive that mistakenly left information about the new console on his LinkedIn page. AMD’s involvement – which was presumably meant to remain a secret – has been reported by numerous technology and gaming industry blogs in the last 24 hours.
What’s particularly interesting about this situation is AMD’s involvement with both Sony and Microsoft – two major competitors in the gaming console industry. With a stake in both manufacturers, AMD stands to gain a huge increase in revenue during the current generation of gaming.
Despite its somewhat undesirable leak, AMD’s involvement in Microsoft’s new Xbox One console is certainly a big win for the company. With competition between game console developers, AMD can expect an extensive promotional effort from both of its video gaming clients. Investors – now is a good time to take notice.
