Consoles

Console Giants Sony and Microsoft Team Up

Yes, you read that right. Sony and Microsoft are joining forces to tackle the gaming industry head on as it undergoes increasingly tricky to navigate changes. The two gaming giants have been competing for years, and with each new generation of Xbox and PlayStation they have been competing for market share.

Now, it looks like the brands have decided that the best way to move forward into the future of gaming is together. At least in some ways.

Consoles Under Threat

If you look at the current state of play in the console world right now, this partnership actually makes a lot of sense. For years, gamers purchased physical copies of games to play on their Xbox or PlayStation, but in recent times digital distribution has taken over and online downloads have become popular.

Now more than ever there is a new shift towards cloud based gaming, and gamers no longer need to download a copy of a game to play. Instead, they simply need an Internet connection and they are good to go. All the games are hosted on cloud servers and accessing them is fast and cost effective for both sides. Much like the great fun online games, getting in on the action is easy.

Essentially, what is happening to gaming is what Netflix did to TV and Microsoft and Sony are realizing this and need to compete with Amazon, Alphabet (Google) NVIDIA GeForce Now, and Stadia.

While each brand has cloud gaming services of their own, namely Microsoft xCloud and Sony’s Xbox Game Pass and PlayStation Neither of these 2 are exactly player favourites. So, in order to once again dominate in the gaming scene, the 2 have joined forces.

Staying Ahead In Gaming

Of the two parties, Microsoft was the brand that had the best reason to cut a deal as it is facing huge rivalries in the gaming world, and gaming hasn’t always been its core focus. Clearly the brand wants to keep as much of an oar in the industry as possible, and if it meant partnering with Sony then it was worth it.

The two are now planning to work on newer and better cloud computing technologies and to expand the Microsoft Azure platform as much as possible to support game and content streaming.

For Sony the logic of the deal is clear too. They need server space and Microsoft has that in spades. By teaming up, the two tech giants can ensure that Alphabet and Amazon don’t get ahead of them in the cloud based gaming sector and that they can stay on top of current trends.

Of course the new and surprising deal surely has its limits and we shouldn’t expect to see an XStation or a PlayBox any time soon, nor should we expect game collab either. And we can bet that any new generation consoles will also become part of the age-old Microsoft-Sony rivalry.

However the new deal makes it clear that both brands feel that they should both be tops in the gaming world, and they are willing to team up in some ways in order to stay there…