A few days ago, Sony and Microsoft broke bread over an announced partnership to pioneer new streaming technologies in the future using Microsoft’s vast server bank and engineering initiatives. This collaboration is intended to be used to bolster both companies’ game streaming technology in the future, which obviously is a major dream for two long-time rivals. It was apparently so secretive that many within Sony had said they had no idea about it until the press release went out.
According to Bloomberg, Sony employees who were working on the upcoming successor to the PlayStation 4 (presumably but not necessarily called the PlayStation 5) had to be assured that this out-of-left-field announcement was not changing their plans and work on the console. While Bloomberg confirmed with Sony that the talks for this partnership had been ongoing for a year, it seems not everyone knew that.
Cloud technology is being an increasingly important part of every platform holder’s future plans, with Microsoft having made their intentions clear at last year’s E3, Nintendo experimenting with streaming in Japan, and Sony having been at least partly on board since they acquired Gaikai ahead of this generation. Now it looks like everyone is eager to take it seriously, but it might be years if the people working on the new consoles aren’t aware of its inevitability.
[Source: Bloomberg]
