Microsoft and Sony Team Up ( EDIT: PlayStation team was not notified )

[Shreyas1]

It turns out that Microsoft and Sony have signed a deal over game streaming

 

Quote

It is expected Sony will use Microsoft’s Azure cloud service to host its upcoming PlayStation streaming service. 

Microsoft has been trialling a streaming offer of its own, under its Xbox brand. 

The firms said they would also work together on semiconductors and artificial intelligence applications. 

"For many years, Microsoft has been a key business partner for us, though of course the two companies have also been competing in some areas,” said Kenichio Yoshida, Sony’s chief executive. 

“I believe that our joint development of future cloud solutions will contribute greatly to the advancement of interactive content.” 

Microsoft’s chief executive, Satya Nadella, said: "Sony has always been a leader in both entertainment and technology, and the collaboration we announced today builds on this history of innovation.”

They are doing this to possibly compete with companies like google, as Sony's lack of expertise and infrastructure  in this field of game streaming may hurt them in the long run. Microsoft's azure gets some ground against amazon web services.

Quote

"It is clear that Microsoft is the best choice for Sony even with the competitive dynamic between Xbox and PlayStation,” Mr Harding-Rolls said.

"Working together they have a better chance to head off competition from the likes of Google, which has gone on to dominate the last wave of technology disruption in the mobile space alongside Apple." 

While precise details of the partnership are still vague, the companies also said they would be working together on new semiconductors, image sensors and artificial intelligence. 

For Microsoft, that opens the door to getting its cloud technology integrated into more consumer products, such as cameras and televisions, rather than working mostly on business applications as it does today.

I never expected this to happen. Though, lack of competition always hurts the consumer and I hope the console market will stay competitive, even though this arrangement is probably only for streaming and some other technologies. This is actually slightly disappointing for me, as it seems that the entire console industry is going in the direction with game streaming, and it would have been nice to see some companies making actual consoles.

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-48304221

 

 

EDIT: It appears that Sony, not the PlayStation team, negotiated on this matter with Microsoft. 

Quote

Negotiations with Microsoft began last year and were handled directly by Sony’s senior management in Tokyo, largely without the involvement of the PlayStation unit, according to people familiar with the matter. Staff at the gaming division were caught off-guard by the news. Managers had to calm workers and assure them that plans for the company’s next-generation console weren’t affected, said the people, asking not to be identified discussing private matters.

So this gets more interesting, though it does show how long this idea was in the works. 

 

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-19/sony-s-deal-with-microsoft-blindsided-its-own-playstation-team

[yian88]

I feel partially good partially bad about this.

We can finally get massive gaming quality improvement as soon as they upgrade the servers, and the code for new graphics will be out faster thanks to consistent hardware.

On the other side we lose latency and complete control over what and how we game. If they do manage to keep latency under control on fiber, wifi AC and 5G then regular gaming is going to die very fast, and with it all the small developers that cant afford to host their games on G Stadia, Nvidia's GFNow and MS/Sony platform, the only one that hasnt jumped on the this train is Amazon, i suspect Amazon will ally with Nvidia+Microsoft Windows to be able to compete.

 

As long as i can get rid of bulky PC's that kept me "hostage" a good part of my life, im good with this tech. I think on the latency part they really need to setup separate network tunneling channels for high speed response unlinked from stream feed bandwidth optimized connection and then develop a prediction algorithm AI/ML to move ingame by skipping directly to where the player view should be in time, based on input scaling and acceleration from mouse/controller.

 

If 5G is really what they claim it to be (doubt) and it can reach 1ms between device and towers then it will be feasable to have local big city servers with 10-15ms network lag and under 10ms 5G lag, thats actually quite playable.

[PlayStation 2]

YEAH, NO MORE PHYSICAL DISCS! Woo, means that we can't play games that we've purchased once those streaming services go out of business or get discontinued!

[emosun]

1 minute ago, Dan Castellaneta said:

YEAH, NO MORE PHYSICAL DISCS! Woo, means that we can't play games that we've purchased once those streaming services go out of business or get discontinued!

I don't even care about the disks i just want an installation file so I can just put it on any type of storage medium whenever.

I dont really hate loosing disks i just hate not having the game in one form or another to install and move and save and use whenever I want.

[Zodiark1593]

29 minutes ago, yian88 said:

I feel partially good partially bad about this.

We can finally get massive gaming quality improvement as soon as they upgrade the servers, and the code for new graphics will be out faster thanks to consistent hardware.

On the other side we lose latency and complete control over what and how we game. If they do manage to keep latency under control on fiber, wifi AC and 5G then regular gaming is going to die very fast, and with it all the small developers that cant afford to host their games on G Stadia, Nvidia's GFNow and MS/Sony platform, the only one that hasnt jumped on the this train is Amazon, i suspect Amazon will ally with Nvidia+Microsoft Windows to be able to compete.

 

As long as i can get rid of bulky PC's that kept me "hostage" a good part of my life, im good with this tech. I think on the latency part they really need to setup separate network tunneling channels for high speed response unlinked from stream feed bandwidth optimized connection and then develop a prediction algorithm AI/ML to move ingame by skipping directly to where the player view should be in time, based on input scaling and acceleration from mouse/controller.

 

If 5G is really what they claim it to be (doubt) and it can reach 1ms between device and towers then it will be feasable to have local big city servers with 10-15ms network lag and under 10ms 5G lag, thats actually quite playable.

Downside of gaming going Streaming only being that anyone with less than very good internet connections (plenty of rural America lacks decent internet options) had probably best find a new hobby.

[S w a t s o n]

Wow Stadia must have got them spooked. Also I love the "work together on semiconductors and AI". Basically really saying "we both use AMD's shit anyways, lets just actually both talk to AMD at the same time"

[Cyberbuilder]

55 minutes ago, Dan Castellaneta said:

YEAH, NO MORE PHYSICAL DISCS! Woo, means that we can't play games that we've purchased once those streaming services go out of business or get discontinued!

RIP eBay's Video Games Section

[yian88]

1 hour ago, Zodiark1593 said:

Downside of gaming going Streaming only being that anyone with less than very good internet connections (plenty of rural America lacks decent internet options) had probably best find a new hobby.

Yes but if 5G gets cheaper in the end it might still be cheaper for small towns to go 5G than go fiber door to door. 5G doesnt even require extra routers, you just mount the antenna and with a tv/tablet/phone/pc all should have 5G in the future, its pointless to limit 5G just to phone carriers and to phones ofc, we need new ways to use the same subscription to connect multiple devices.

The only ones remaining are remote people like farms in the middle of nowhere, there is no fix for them, maybe beam internet from the mainroad to their farms somehow, unless its mountains/trees in the way.

The majority of gamers are and will be in big/medium/small towns, i assume the first few years the games will be hybrid but then they will start having streaming exclusives as 5G gets better and people will be left out partially of fully eventually.

[Misanthrope]

4 hours ago, Shreyas1 said:

I never expected this to happen.

I did: Nadella has been very consistent in pushing Microsoft was a service provider, even above their traditional product avenues. I think that while he's still willing to let the rest of the teams at MS have their attempts the board hired him because he's proven Azure is the future for Microsoft and at this rate I fully expect them to retire for many of the more competitive product avenues and just focus on Azure: We can give you servers and cloud, you can bring your own OS or you can also rent out Windows licenses (Or just use Linux, your choice).

 

We can sell you space for your entertainment products. We have the Xbox entertainment ecosystem but that's opt in you can also select Playstation network or develop your own (Again, with Linux).

 

So long as all people keep paying and depending on Azure they're going to be eventually ok with competitors, because it's the smart thing to do if you own the fucking store. (See: Valve, Epic)

[Guest]

I feel as if this is good,as its showing company's are finally working together like good children, but I hope this cloud service shit goes away becuse I truly hate the idea of it.but what do I know it's just a opinion.

[Uttamattamakin]

With games like GTA V showing that they can create large fan bases with essentially the same code on multiple platforms... MAYBE this can make cross platform a standard part of gaming.  Then we'll really find out of PCMR bears out. 

[Shreyas1]

8 minutes ago, nnfancois said:

I feel as if this is good,as its showing company's are finally working together like good children, but I hope this cloud service shit goes away becuse I truly hate the idea of it.but what do I know it's just a opinion. 

Except, as far as us consumers are concerned, competition is generally a good thing so companies working together may not be in our best interests. However, in this case Sony and Microsoft working together may eventually allow for things such as less exclusives and cross platform later down the line ( I hope ). It should be noted that the only thing that's happening right now is that Microsoft is providing cloud technology for Sony's service.

[Trik'Stari]

The gaming community needs to absolutely reject game streaming services. Not only will it be detrimental to the custom PC hardware industry, but it will be detrimental to the gaming community overall as our rights to the software we "purchase" are eroded overall.

 

These services MUST. FAIL. And I mean fucking miserably.

[Doobeedoo]

Stadia 

[Connor M.]

Doesn't this mean that Microsoft/Xbox will have an "upper hand" against Sony and the PlayStation?

[Brooksie359]

22 hours ago, yian88 said:

I feel partially good partially bad about this.

We can finally get massive gaming quality improvement as soon as they upgrade the servers, and the code for new graphics will be out faster thanks to consistent hardware.

On the other side we lose latency and complete control over what and how we game. If they do manage to keep latency under control on fiber, wifi AC and 5G then regular gaming is going to die very fast, and with it all the small developers that cant afford to host their games on G Stadia, Nvidia's GFNow and MS/Sony platform, the only one that hasnt jumped on the this train is Amazon, i suspect Amazon will ally with Nvidia+Microsoft Windows to be able to compete.

 

As long as i can get rid of bulky PC's that kept me "hostage" a good part of my life, im good with this tech. I think on the latency part they really need to setup separate network tunneling channels for high speed response unlinked from stream feed bandwidth optimized connection and then develop a prediction algorithm AI/ML to move ingame by skipping directly to where the player view should be in time, based on input scaling and acceleration from mouse/controller.

 

If 5G is really what they claim it to be (doubt) and it can reach 1ms between device and towers then it will be feasable to have local big city servers with 10-15ms network lag and under 10ms 5G lag, thats actually quite playable.

I doubt regular gaming will die when this comes out. There are alot of people who play indie games or non AAA games that wouldn't be able to use this service. I would suspect that people wouldn't just give up on those games purely because they want to be able to use a streaming service. 

[Uttamattamakin]

4 hours ago, Jack_of_all_Trades said:

 

I am a PC gamer BUT... I'd say that one sample proves nothing.  We don't have the data yet to tell if ... in a confrontation between PC and console gamers ... the PC gamers will be the Soviet Union or the other guys who thought they were masters but got totally defeated hardcore. 

IF PC gamers have an advantage it is a more mature approach to accomplishing the objectives of a given game.   It's all mental. 

[crystal6tak]

On 5/17/2019 at 6:07 PM, yian88 said:

If they do manage to keep latency under control on fiber, wifi AC and 5G then regular gaming is going to die very fast

I don't think regular gaming will die anytime soon. Even if they massively improve the latency, there will always be some latency which is unacceptable for any games that requires fast reaction (especially in multiplayer games).

 

There's also VR to think about. It's a growing market and I don't see Sony dropping PSVR anytime soon. Streaming 8k at 120hz with very low latency in the future sounds basically impossible. 

 

And as others have mentioned, not everyone have a great internet connection. I don't think Sony and MS will just give them the bird and drop physical consoles completely.

 

I do think streaming has it's place and will live along side regular gaming nicely. Accessing console exclusive as a PC player, playing multiplayer with console friends, playing games at high graphics settings while using low end PC, and among other things. 

15 hours ago, Trik'Stari said:

The gaming community needs to absolutely reject game streaming services. Not only will it be detrimental to the custom PC hardware industry, but it will be detrimental to the gaming community overall as our rights to the software we "purchase" are eroded overall.

 

These services MUST. FAIL. And I mean fucking miserably.

Hmm, why do you think it'll be detrimental to custom PC hardware industry? Personally I think there would either be no change or even faster advancement in hardware.

 

If any average Joe can pay a few bucks to get access to streaming, gaming would be much more accessible, not limited to those that payed pretty pennies for a console or a PC. More accessible games means more players, which means increased compute cost. Streaming service would have to pay for more hardware to keep up with the compute demand. Increase demand for more and better performing hardware should drive hardware to advance faster.

 

Then once the average Joe gets a taste of gaming and wants to explore further (zero latency gaming, VR, etc), they'll then go and purchase a console or PC. I'd saying streaming would only help the gaming industry grow more.

 

As for the right to our software, we lost that long ago buddy. With steam, uplay, EGS, origin, and however more on PC, we've been purchasing a "right to access" the games for a while now. Console players have it worse, I still can't wrap my head around needing to pay every month to access online. So many games nowdays are multiplayer only (Overwatch, PUBG, Division 2, etc). The idea of paying for the game itself, then having to pay even more every month to play those games is mind boggling.