AMD Upbeat On PC Games Market

AMD senior vice president and general manager Rick Bergman has described the PC games market as “still healthy”, in a new wide-ranging interview with the ATI graphics firm acquirer on technology website Venturebeat. Asked whether he still felt there was a strong appetite for high-end graphics technology, Bergman answered: “If you look at the sales, it’s still healthy. The third quarter was down a little from last year. But the market keeps getting bigger and bigger.” On the subject of whether PC gaming in particular was also still healthy he commented: “There is a very compelling story on why PC gaming is so healthy now. When you consider shipments of high-end gaming rigs and strong sales of online games such as World of WarCraft, you can see how strong it is.” “Sales at the high end continue to astound me. We address that by putting two of our sweet spot chips into one board. The gaming platforms tend to be the first place where games appear, but we are in about 80 percent of the gaming consoles sold, since we’re in the Microsoft and Nintendo consoles”, added Bergman. Cautious about the impact of the current global economic situation, Bergman added that “The amplitude of our gains would be higher if the market was stronger.” Following AMD’s acquisition of ATi, the company is now responsible for the graphics technology in both the Xbox 360 and the Wii. Asked what the success of Nintendo’s home console meant for graphics Bergman answered: “In some ways, I think it is great news for everybody. The Wii is opening up a lot of new households to games that haven’t played before in past generations. Sales keep going up and that is good for anyone.”