Sony’s chief executive has warned that cloud gaming remains “very tricky” technically, downplaying the risk that console makers in the industry will quickly switch to a technology that rival Microsoft has bet heavily on.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Kenichiro Yoshida said the PlayStation creator would still look into “various options” for streaming games over the internet itself in the future, adding that it could leverage its artificial intelligence agent GT Sophy to enhance cloud gaming .
“I think the cloud itself is an amazing business model, but when it comes to gaming, the technical difficulty is high,” said Yoshida, who pointed to latency — the fast response time gamers demand — as the biggest problem. “So cloud gaming will have challenges, but we want to meet those challenges.”
Despite all the attempts around the cloud to reshape the gaming industry, many users still haven’t fully switched from consoles or high-end gaming PCs to streaming games exclusively over the internet, out of fear that slowing internet connections and server speeds could cause lag.
Publishers are not fully supportive either. In January, Google shut down its Stadia streaming service after most game producers refused to release their hit games on the platform.
After more than a decade in development, the promise of cloud gaming remains unfulfilled. Sony was one of the first big players to enter the market, buying cloud gaming company Gaikai for $380 million in 2012 and later acquiring technology from rival OnLive.
While it launched a cloud gaming subscription service in 2014 and is now integrated with its upgraded and expanded service PS Plus Premium, analysts say Sony has not used its early bets to establish itself as a leader in the space.
Yoshida also pointed to the costly inefficiencies of cloud gaming, with servers sitting idle for much of the day before having to deal with high traffic of players playing at night or during “dark hours.”He added that Sony responded by releasing GT Sophy during quiet hours to learn how to beat human competitors in a racing simulator grand tour.
“The dark times of cloud gaming have been an issue for Microsoft and Google, but it makes sense that we can use these (quiet) times for AI learning,” Yoshida said in a speech at the company’s headquarters in Tokyo.
He declined to comment on Sony’s influence on Microsoft’s $75 billion deal to acquire publisher Activision Blizzard, the company behind the game. call of Duty and World of Warcraft The gaming franchise, said regulatory scrutiny continues.
But the deal has rattled the global games industry, with the U.S. software company locked in a bitter battle with Sony for console gaming dominance.
Concerns from industry and regulators center on whether Microsoft will let Activision’s games become exclusive to its own cloud gaming service, a move that could accelerate the shift away from consoles.
Last month, Britain’s competition watchdog blocked the acquisition, arguing it would cement Microsoft’s dominance in the nascent cloud gaming market. According to Microsoft, its Xbox Cloud Gaming service has more than 20 million users.
However, the response from regulators has been mixed, with EU regulators approving the acquisition, citing concessions made by Microsoft to allay its concerns.
If the deal goes through, Microsoft will become the third-largest gaming company in terms of revenue, after China’s Tencent and Sony.