AMD’s Best Kept Secret
An inside look at AMD’s elite game developer team
If you’re reading this blog, there’s a good chance that you know that AMD is a “gaming company”. Yes, we make the hardware that enables great console and PC gaming experiences, and we make professional-grade hardware that development studios use to design and build evermore impressive games, but we also consider ourselves a gaming company because we’re game developers ourselves. Yes, despite all of our hardware prowess, AMD employs a team of ace game developers that toil tirelessly behind the scenes to provide the support our technology partners need to deliver some of the great graphics and game play that you know and love.
If you’ve ever read a review of a new CPU or GPU architecture, you know how complicated new platform technology can be. With a myriad of programming methods available (APIs for the geeks like me out there), and new features being constantly introduced to those programming methods, it can be tough for our game developer technology partners to know how best to take advantage of AMD’s new hardware. Who better to show them than AMD’s game developer squad?
Being a gamer, I’m sure you’ve seen video interviews with tons of producers, designers and developers of your favorite games. The one thing they all have in common is passion. Sure, they’re all paid to do a job, and yes, the companies they work for are in business to make money, but in every interview with someone responsible for making a game, the one thing you walk away with is how crazy they are about their game, and how much they want it to be perfect so that gamers like you absolutely love the experience. That same passion describes AMD’s game developer team to a T. We love games, and we love gamers, in large part because we’re gamers ourselves.
This week in San Francisco, the video game world is converging for one its most interesting shows of the year: the Game Developer Conference. The show brings together developer talent from all corners of the globe who come to learn new tips and tricks that will inevitably inspire and impact the development of games that get released in the months and years to come. There are tons of sessions on lessons learned from past games, how to make games look and play better, and of course, the parties. Think of it as a big group hug for the development community. The way AMD sees it, there’s no better time or place to give developers and gamers an inside look at the code that AMD’s developer relations team lives by, something we call the Gamers’ Manifesto.
At its core, the Gamers’ Manifesto defines what AMD does for the gaming industry and game developers, and how we do it. It’s a set of guiding principles that hold us true to our most important audience: you the gamers. And we’re okay with that because, like I said, we’re gamers too. I invite you to read through it. I promise that by the end, you’ll know just what we’re made of, and how AMD’s approach differs from others’ in the industry.
While we’ve been living those values for years, today I’m also excited to announce that our developer program gets a new name and identity – one that will clearly distinguish it in the hearts and minds of the gaming community. I’d like to introduce you to “AMD Gaming Evolved”.
AMD Gaming Evolved perfectly captures the essence of what we do as whole at AMD. With every technology we introduce, with every industry standards meeting we go to, with every game we work on, and with every partner bundle we put in place, our goal is to steadily evolve the gaming experience, making it incrementally better for everyone without adversely affecting the industry or gamers. As part of AMD’s Fusion Partner Program, AMD Gaming Evolved will see the same support as other partner-related activities. Resources across the company are focused on making AMD’s developer relations efforts even more of a success than they’ve been to date. That means that if you like the experience of Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare® 2, Dragon Age™: Origins or Supreme Commander® 2 on the latest ATI Radeon graphics hardware, we’ve got lots more in store for you.
If you like the idea of an inside look into what makes AMD’s developer
team tick, then the fun doesn’t stop here. Later this week, I’ll be back
to talk about the work we do and how AMD’s developer program has had,
and all of the good it’s brought gamers like you and game developers
around the world by sticking to our guns and being all about the gamers.
I’ll also be posting about some of the recent successes we’ve had. It
may surprise you to know that AMD’s developer team has been involved
with almost every major PC game that’s come out in the last year.
In the meantime, have a read of the Gamers’ Manifesto, and let me know what you think!
Neal Robison is Director, ISV Relationship Management at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.
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