AMD: It’s all about Games and VR

  • Hopes to entice gamers to upgrade with their new Ryzen processors and Radeon graphics cards
  • VR content creation key to drive further growth in the young sector

 

AMD: It’s all about Games and VR

 

FOR the past four to five years the PC industry has seen a slump because there has not been exciting new product offerings and innovations according to AMD’s corporate vice president and product chief technology officer Joe Marci.

It is because of this flat line innovation that consumers have been content with their current graphics card, seeing little need to upgrade.

However, Marci points out recent trends in technology, not just in games but in Virtual (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR), new display standards like High Dynamic Range (HDR) and 4K streaming are becoming commonplace may be the turning point to convince them to make the switch.

To fill this gap in the market AMD is placing its bets on the gaming and virtual reality markets by drawing more attention to its Ryzen processors and Radeon graphics cards.

Announced at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2017 AMD is putting a lot of its efforts behind its Ryzen product line that it targeting gamers and PC enthusiasts.

According to AMD’s director of consumer sales for Asia Pacific and Japan Pete Chambers (pic above), Ryzen is claimed to deliver a 52% increase in performance as compared to their previous generation of products.

“As we bring these new things to market they are at different price points and pieces of the market that we haven’t been in,” he says.

“Our goal is to raise the perception of the brand. We want to be in more premium products and gaming. That ultimately will drive increase perception by our customers.”

He adds that it plans to focus on more in-store executions with interactive zones for people to experience their products as well as offering customers game bundle promotions that bring popular game titles to the hands of its customers.

Chambers hints that AMD wants to make a harder push towards high-end gaming desktops and notebooks to use their Ryzen processors and Radeon graphics.

The future of content is in VR

 

AMD: It’s all about Games and VR

 

Apart from gaming VR is another key focus point for AMD as it is a major driver for bigger and more powerful hardware that will, in turn, fuel customer demand for its products.

“The biggest thing that needs to happen right now is that there needs to be more creative and rich VR content to entice customers to experience it for themselves,” said Chambers.

To this end, AMD is already hard at work driving content partnerships that have resulted in the creation of VR experience tours with major Hollywood studio 20th Century Fox on the latest movie Alien: Covenant by director Ridley Scott.

Previously, AMD has worked a similar tie-in with the studio on the Assassin’s Creed movie which was released in December 2016. AMD acted as the technology partner in the making of the movie and a VR experience that it rolled out in conjunction with the movie.

AMD director of OEM marketing Raymond Dumbeck said it made a lot of sense for AMD to partner with the movie as it gives them the rights and ability to explore new avenues with VR to attract new customers.

“We rolled out a VR experience tour in six theatres in three different cities in the United States to coincide with the release of the movie. For many moviegoers, it was their first time experiencing VR and the response had been overwhelmingly positive,” he said.

Dumbeck said the success of the engagement has, in turn, encouraged AMD to do similar collaborations with studios in the future.

AMD believes that 2017 marks the very beginning of the VR industry as there is plenty of room for growth in the technology.

He believes that how humans have been interfacing with PCs thus far has been flat but with VR it will be more natural.

“Today we are just getting into the basics of VR, in fact, we are far from full presence experience that is close to photorealism,” said Macri.

By that, he means that VR would encompass not just sight but also engage our senses by smell and touch too.

AMD hints that as technology progresses that would mean displays within VR headsets would eventually increase in resolution to the point that we won’t be able to see the individual pixels that make up the virtual worlds of tomorrow.

 

Related Stories:

AMD plans to regain CPU performance crown

Nvidia expands GeForce gaming to more PCs and Macs

Indonesia’s Slingshot Group introduces AR/VR store network

 

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