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As Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard buyout hangs in the balance, the boss of Sony has warned cloud gaming is still technically “very tricky”.
Speaking to the Financial Times, Sony chief executive Kenichiro Yoshida poured cold water on any potential risk to PlayStation from cloud gaming.
“I think cloud itself is an amazing business model, but when it comes to games, the technical difficulties are high,” Yoshida said. “So there will be challenges to cloud gaming, but we want to take on those challenges.”
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These technical difficulties will be familiar to gamers: latency issues that affect responsiveness and create frustrating online experiences.
But Yoshida said Sony may use its artificial intelligence agent GT Sophy to boost the performance of cloud gaming.
Yoshida also mentioned cost issues associated with running cloud gaming servers that are idle for much of the day before traffic ramps up in the evening, or “dark time”, as gamers go online. Sony made the most of these quiet hours during the day by pitting GT Sophy against human players in Gran Turismo.
“The dark time for cloud gaming had been an issue for Microsoft as well as Google,” Yoshida said, “but it was meaningful that we were able to use those [quieter] hours for AI learning.
Yoshida’s comments come after the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) shocked the video game industry by blocking Microsoft’s $68.7 billion buyout of Call of Duty maker Activision Blizzard.
The CMA expressed concern about the potential for Microsoft to make Activision Blizzard games such as Call of Duty exclusive to Xbox Cloud Gaming, boosting its potential dominance of the market as it grows.
Microsoft has been at pains to downplay the significance of cloud gaming for Xbox in a bid to counter the CMA’s argument. While Xbox Cloud Gaming is available to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers at no additional cost, Microsoft has yet to announce take-up figures.
Sony’s cloud gaming approach is reserved in comparison, and Yoshida declined to comment when asked about the potential impact Microsoft’s purchase of Activision Blizzard would have on its business.
Microsoft’s buyout of Activision Blizzard hangs in the balance. The company has appealed the CMA’s decision, with a hearing set for July 24. Meanwhile, Microsoft is set for an August showdown with the Federal Trade Commission, which sued to block the purchase last year. The EU approved the deal last month.
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