Sony Partners with Microsoft for Cloud Gaming Strategic Partnership

In surprise news yesterday, Microsoft and Sony formally announced a strategic partnership for cloud gaming.

Under the memorandum of understanding signed by the parties, the two companies will explore joint development of future cloud solutions in Microsoft Azure to support their respective game and content-streaming services. In addition, the two companies will explore the use of current Microsoft Azure datacenter-based solutions for Sony’s game and content-streaming services. By working together, the companies aim to deliver more enhanced entertainment experiences for their worldwide customers. These efforts will also include building better development platforms for the content creator community.

As part of the memorandum of understanding, Sony and Microsoft will also explore collaboration in the areas of semiconductors and AI. For semiconductors, this includes potential joint development of new intelligent image sensor solutions. By integrating Sony’s cutting-edge image sensors with Microsoft’s Azure AI technology in a hybrid manner across cloud and edge, as well as solutions that leverage Sony’s semiconductors and Microsoft cloud technology, the companies aim to provide enhanced capabilities for enterprise customers. In terms of AI, the parties will explore incorporation of Microsoft’s advanced AI platform and tools in Sony consumer products, to provide highly intuitive and user-friendly AI experiences.

You can find the formal announcement here : Microsoft and Sony Announce Partnership

Our Take

This is certainly interesting news, but shouldn’t be wholly unexpected. Gaming is evolving rapidly and with competition coming from new companies like Google and Amazon, this is a partnership that will benefit both companies in areas. We will be talking a lot more on this in the coming weeks. And stay tuned for “The State of Xbox” coming from Ainsley in the next week as it will cover this and a lot more.