Sony has long been adamant about working with either Nintendo or Microsoft, perhaps two of its biggest rivals in the industry. However, it appears the PlayStation company has gone through a change of heart.
In a surprising move, Sony and Microsoft have announced a partnership that sees both companies working together as the future of gaming enters the fold. A big part of this future is, of course, cloud gaming, which seems to be the most imminent candidate of disrupting the whole industry. Rather than find ways to outdo each other in that department, Microsoft and Sony decided to ride in cahoots.
Sony And Microsoft Cozying Up
Sony and Microsoft plan to partnering up toward development of cloud-based gaming services.
"The two companies will explore joint development of future cloud solutions in Microsoft Azure to support their respective game and content-streaming services," said Microsoft in a statement.
Sony's existing game and content-streaming services will also be powered by Azure in the future.
According to Microsoft, also part of these efforts are creating better development platforms for the content creator community. That sounds as if both companies are planning to make services that would aid creators and the gaming community in general.
Not much information is available right now beyond the aforementioned details. Both companies, however, said they will share more details once they become available.
Afraid Of Google Stadia?
By the looks of it, Sony and Microsoft are collaborating on cloud gaming. No one knows what the future of gaming looks like. Some predict physical games will go kaput, as is the conventional business model of games when cloud gaming enters the mainstream.
Although it's making no claims of disruption, Google's Stadia service is likely to shake things up as it commits to a platform-agnostic future of gaming wherein games can be played on almost any device. Stadia will stream games from the cloud to Chrome, Chromecast, and Pixel devices.
Suffice it to say that Stadia is a threat to all video game companies, more so to Sony and Microsoft. Perhaps both teamed up so they can fight back in case Stadia gains significant traction.
Apart from cloud gaming, Sony and Microsoft will also work on semiconductors and artificial intelligence. This will include intelligent image sensor tools and solutions that make use of Azure AI, and Sony utilizing Microsoft's AI platform for its consumer products.
