NVIDIA CEO backs Blu-ray technology

NVIDIA's CEO has stated his confidence in the success of Sony's PlayStation 3 console, telling San Jose Mercury News journalist Dean Takahashi that the company has "backed the right horse" in the next-gen race.

Commenting on the company's decision to provide graphics processors for Sony, having previously worked with Microsoft to supply chips for the original Xbox, Huang stated: "You can't build chips for all the game consoles. That's not possible. No one has enough extraneous resources around to build chips for all the game consoles."

When asked if the company had "backed the right horse" in the latest console race, Huang was extremely confident in NVIDIA's commitment to Sony, adding: "I don't think that working with Sony is wrong. There is no way that is going to be wrong."

The CEO reaffirmed his belief in the success of Sony's Blu-Ray media format - in spite of the resultant high cost of the console compared to Microsoft's Xbox 360 or the Nintendo Wii - suggesting that the inclusion of Blu-Ray was integral to the hardware lifespan of the next-generation machine.

"I'm not sure how Microsoft is going to do in this transition," he stated. "They are clever and they will figure out a way. I'll make a prediction that Xbox 360 can't possibly be a DVD-only device by Christmas of next year.

"The important thing is you cannot announce a game console for the next ten years and not have Blu-Ray. It's an impossible scenario," Huang continued.

"If I'm going to buy a next-generation game console, I'm going to buy a console with next-generation media. It's going to last 10 years."