The gist of it: there are 3 gaming super powers, Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft. Microsoft and Sony are both pushing into streaming games, even as they pull against it. Every display has to be gaming capable, and the best way to ensure that is to make sure that streaming gaming succeeds. The real issue for Sony here is that it does not have its own cloud infrastructure, unlike Microsoft with Azure. Although Google had its own cloud services and still shut down Stadia, but that’s more Google’s capricious approach to dealing with tough markets.
At WWDC, Apple was talking about Game Mode in Sonoma MacOS, a way to release more hardware resources to enhance gaming experience on its platform, and it no doubt has an eye on gaming for its future headsets. Apple’s CPU and GPU are certainly good enough to handle the worst of twitch games. Apple Silicon has to show it can do as good, if not a better, job with game performance for AAA titles as PC CPUs and GPUs.
Sony’s CEO Expresses Concerns About Cloud Gaming
In a recent interview with the Financial Times, Sony’s CEO Kenichiro Yoshida expressed his concerns about cloud gaming, citing its technical challenges and the unpredictability of the gaming industry’s transition towards this technology. Despite these hurdles, Yoshida reassured that Sony is exploring various opportunities for streaming games over the internet, possibly leveraging their AI agent, GT Sophy, to enhance cloud gaming experiences.
Yoshida acknowledged the potential of cloud gaming but emphasized its inherent technical complexities, particularly the latency issue – the rapid response times required by gamers.
While cloud gaming has yet to take over traditional console or PC gaming, due to fears of latency and inconsistent internet and server speeds, it still holds promise. Major players like Google have attempted and failed to revolutionize the gaming industry around the cloud, with the Stadia streaming service closing in January after game producers held back from releasing their top titles on the platform.
Sony itself has had a substantial presence in the cloud gaming sector since 2012 when it purchased Gaikai, a cloud gaming company, for $380 million. However, even though Sony launched a cloud gaming subscription service integrated with its upgraded PS Plus Premium in 2014, critics suggest the company has not maximized its early investments to emerge as a frontrunner in the cloud gaming industry.
Cloud gaming’s operational inefficiencies were also highlighted by Yoshida, especially during periods of low demand when servers remain idle before handling high traffic during peak gaming hours. Sony has been combating this issue by deploying its AI agent, GT Sophy, during these quieter periods to enhance its proficiency against human competitors in Gran Turismo.
Yoshida declined to comment on the potential implications of Microsoft’s proposed $75 billion acquisition of Activision, which has spurred widespread concern in the global gaming industry. If completed, the deal could lead Microsoft to restrict Activision’s games to its own cloud gaming service, potentially causing a shift away from consoles.
The acquisition was blocked by the UK competition regulator last month due to concerns over Microsoft solidifying its dominance in the cloud gaming market. In contrast, EU regulators approved the deal after Microsoft agreed to concessions to alleviate their concerns. Should the deal be finalized, Microsoft would become the third-largest gaming company by revenue, following China’s Tencent and Sony.
