AMD and Bethesda Softworks Partner to Propel PC Gaming Forward

SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwired - Feb 28, 2017) - AMD (NASDAQ: AMD) and Bethesda Softworks today announced a long-term strategic partnership to rapidly advance game technology development, fuel new PC game experiences, and reshape the gaming landscape. The collaboration brings together two titans of the gaming industry: Bethesda Softworks, whose storied 30-year history has produced legendary games including those in The Elder Scrolls series, Fallout 3 and 4, DOOM, Wolfenstein: The New Order, Quake, and Dishonored, with more than 80 million copies sold; and AMD, whose CPU and GPU technologies power the experiences of 400 million gamers worldwide.

Announced on stage at the AMD "Capsaicin" webcast and press event during the 2017 Game Developers Conference, the multi-title agreement will see the two companies collaborate to develop and accelerate the implementation of new technologies, including the full potential of low-level APIs, such as Vulkan^®, and the computing and graphics power of AMD Ryzen CPUs, Radeon™ GPUs, and AMD server solutions across existing Bethesda franchises. The close-knit strategic partnership will combine hardware, software and game engineering talents at both companies with the creative genius of Bethesda content developers to deliver extraordinary experiences on upcoming hardware architectures.

"This is a disruptive moment in the industry as games demand increasingly more power from today's graphics architectures to deliver detailed worlds and characters at ever higher resolutions, frame rates, and quality settings," said Raja Koduri, senior vice president and chief architect, Radeon Technologies Group. "Working independently, game developers and graphics companies will eventually address the challenges of this new era of gaming; but working in close collaboration, the pace of that progress can advance exponentially. Bethesda is an undisputed leader in the games industry and an ideal strategic partner to jointly tackle this transformative period in gaming."

Of the strategic partnership, Bethesda President Vlatko Andonov said "AMD Radeon graphics architectures represent a true commitment to developers, inviting them to use the hardware as a blank canvas through low-level access to the silicon, and empowering them with architectural advancements that enable them to bring their gaming visions to life without compromise. AMD Ryzen represents one of the most important disruptions to the CPU market in a long time. Our relationship with AMD represents an exciting and powerful opportunity for Bethesda to further advance game experiences for our fans, significantly expand our presence in gaming and VR, and engage with new generations of gamers around the world."