Sony in Talks to Purchase Factory That Manufactures the Embedded DRAM “Heart” of the Wii U

Giuseppe Nelva December 4, 2013 12:22 PM EST

One of the most important components of Nintendo’s Wii U is its embedded DRAM chip, that is considered the “heart” or the “life stone” of the console. That chip is manufactured at the state-of-the-art Renesas Electronics plant of Tsuruoka, in the Yamagata Prefecture, Japan.

Back in August we reported Renesas’ plans to close the factory due to the sluggish sales of the console, that caused a decline in production of the chip, that was responsible for more than half of the manufacturing load of the plant, but things may yet go differently.

Today several Japanese sources, starting with the morning edition of the Nihon Keizai Shimbun newspaper and followed by several reputable business sources like Toyo Keizai, Nikkei, Reuters, Sankei Digital, Mainichi and Asahi Digital, reported that Sony is currently in talks with Renesas for the acquisition of the Tsuruoka plant.

The process for the acquisition may start as early as next week, as Sony is said to plan using the well known expertise of the staff at the plant at Tsuruoka to bolster its production of CMOS sensors for smartphones, for which the company is already market leader worldwide.

A successful acquisition would bring hope for the 900 workers at the factory, that until today thought they were destined to lose their jobs in 2-3 years.

On the other hand, the effect of such an operation on the production of the embedded DRAM for the Wii U is unknown, even if Nintendo is said to have considerable stocks of the component, so the console shouldn’t suffer in the short term even if production of the chip at Tsuruoka were to be completely halted.