‘PlayStation team knew nothing about Microsoft and Sony collaboration plans’

The PlayStation team is said to have been unaware of Sony’s plans to partner with arch-rival Microsoft in advance. The announcement that Sony wants to use Microsoft’s Azure service for game streams hit the team like a bomb, reports Bloomberg.

Sony and Microsoft announced last week that they want to collaborate in various areas around game infrastructure, semiconductors and artificial intelligence. The announcement took the entire gaming industry by surprise, but the biggest shock came from Sony’s own PlayStation division. According to financial news agency Bloomberg, negotiations with Microsoft went directly through the top executives in Tokyo and the PlayStation team was barely involved in the deal.

According to Bloomberg, citing sources familiar with the case, even executives within the PlayStation division were surprised by the news. They should have calmed down the rest of the staff with the message that the plans have no effect on the development of Sony’s next-generation console.

Faster internet connections and better performing cloud services eliminate the need for a physical console for gaming. Especially Sony, where the PlayStation guarantees a third of the profit, is getting hotter and hotter as a result. Although Microsoft also builds consoles, it has a plan-b option with its Azure cloud service, the second largest cloud in the world. Google and Amazon are also currently developing a cloud service for gaming.

In the past seven years, Sony tried to single-handedly build a cloud platform from the ground: the current PlayStation Now. However, that was never the hoped-for success. As a result, the Japanese company was more or less forced to seek cooperation, even with one of its biggest competitors.

According to analysts, Sony’s deal with Microsoft is still well in time. By 2023, cloud gaming will only account for two percent of total revenues in the gaming industry, according to market researcher IHS Markit. It also explains why both Sony and Microsoft will most likely release another ‘classic’ console next year.