It took 15 presentations to convince Sony to use x86 on PS4

Sony's lead system architect Mark Cerny has explained how the company decided to move to an x86 architecture for the PS4.

And it only took 15 presentations for him to convince the game-making bigwigs that the AMD CPU was the right choice.

"Actual work on the PS4 didn't start until 2008," Cerny told Official PlayStation Magazine in an interview.

"I was trying to work out whether [the x86 chip] would be an option. If your only option is the Power PC, it's very restrictive in terms of hardware vendors. If you can also use the x86, you can talk to anyone out there who makes technology."

Hours and hours

"The first real interaction that we had with the game teams was talking to first-party about the x86 and explaining why we felt that finally it was useable in a console," he continued.

"We made 15 separate presentations. We went from morning to mid-afternoon going through how we felt the time had come. We knew we needed to show that our dedication and our concern was just as high as the game teams'.

"The presentation we did was so long that one of the teams was stranded on the tarmac for five hours, and they still arrived before we finished going through all the materials we prepared."

When asked about the lifecycle of the PS4, Cerny admitted that "the PS4 cycle will be pretty much like the PS3 cycle" - so keep an eye out for the PS5 around 2020.

• We've updated our PS4 review. Check it out!