AMD chief touts video game chips as big diversification opportunity

Advanced Micro Devices chief executive Rory Read credited the company’s growing video game business for its improving financial outlook, including the chip maker’s return to profitability in the current third fiscal quarter ending Sept. 30.

Read said in a conference call with analysts that the company has cemented its leadership in game consoles by getting its chips into all three major consoles: the Nintendo Wii U, the Microsoft Xbox One, and the Sony PlayStation 4. While Nintendo’s console debuted last fall and isn’t selling as well as hoped, expectations are high for the other two game machines when they release this fall. AMD views the game market as a place where it can distinguish itself from Intel and reuse the intellectual property that it develops for PC microprocessors.