Sony has revealed considerable information about Sony Interactive Entertainment’s future plans, but even during the PlayStation’s recent business update, the company revealed its thoughts about the possibility that Microsoft might leave the console business. When asked if it was possible that they might not have a competitive Xbox in the future, Hideaki nishino was asked if it was good or bad for the company, replied that a certain level of competition is good for the industry.
“So I think competition in business is healthy and encourages innovation,” Nishino said (via pure Xbox). “There are multiple participants driving the entire gaming industry, and I think this is a good thing while new engagement models are being explored. But as mentioned earlier, I’m confident in my current strategy.
During the same “Fireside Chat”, Nishino also spoke about many other things about the future of the PlayStation. In answering one question about PlayStation, Nishino spoke about how cloud streaming is an interesting technology that has always progressed, while the lack of control over network stability still relies on. Ultimately, Nishino points out that the technology will be more expensive for the company than selling the game in a more traditional way.
“As we demonstrated with (our) products, cloud streaming is going well from a technical standpoint, but the stability of the end-to-end network is not under our control,” says Nishino. “And the higher costs per playtime are still a challenge compared to traditional console models.”
“While cloud gaming is increasingly offering additional options for players to access content, our belief is that the majority of players want to experience the game through local execution, independent of network conditions.
In the meantime, Microsoft appears to be following the trend of wanting to further merge Windows and Xbox businesses closer than before. Almost every console released by Microsoft uses some degree of Windows technology under the hood, but Xbox was named after the use of DirectX graphics technology, but after all, it appears to have been further adopted in the recent unveiling of the ASUS Rog Xbox Ally and Rog Xbox Ally X.
To that end, Microsoft also opted to have the same developers working on improving the gaming capabilities of Windows 11 instead, even halting its own in-house handheld gaming system. The same report also shows that at least one Xbox console may still be visible from Microsoft. However, the company’s future appears to revolve around Xbox Play Anywhere Branding, which is “everything is Xbox,” thanks to services such as GamePass and Cloud Streaming.
