We have known Microsoft and Sony for the battle between gaming consoles. In particular, we know that Microsoft makes Xbox gaming consoles whereas Sony makes PlayStation consoles. Now, Sony’s PS4 is the latest console competing with Microsoft’s Xbox One S/X. This obviously means that we are going to see a battle between the two.
However, the recent news is that the battle has subsided, somewhat. In the latest announcement, Sony and Microsoft have announced its partnership for cloud gaming and streaming. Talking about the partnership, Microsoft and Sony told media that they have done this for “joint development of future cloud solutions in Microsoft Azure to support their respective game and content-streaming services.”
This definitely means that Microsoft’s Xbox and Sony’s PS4 are not partnering anytime soon. But the services inside them are sharing the same platform which is Microsoft’s cloud service, Azure. On the very first line of a press release from Microsoft and Sony, they say that “Under the memorandum of understanding signed by the parties…”
This definitely sounds like some peace treaty but it is definitely needed. In the press release, it is also mentioned that both parties have agreed not to run ads on each other’s platform. Sony CEO Kenichiro Yoshida said that “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.” Apart from the cloud game streaming service on Azure, Microsoft also offered Sony its data centers.
We can also say that Sony’s PlayStation Now cloud streaming platform will flourish with this partnership. Presumably, Microsoft and Sony want to challenge Google’s Stadia platform with this move. However, that does not mean that Microsoft or Sony are going to stop developing consoles. Because we know that PS5 and Xbox Two will release soon, likely by 2020.