9 votes

Sony and Microsoft to explore strategic partnership, collaborate on new cloud-based solutions for gaming experiences and AI solutions

Posted by Deimos
Tags: microsoft, sony, business, games, streaming
https://news.microsoft.com/2019/05/16/sony-and-microsoft-to-explore-strategic-partnership/

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Published
May 16 2019
Word count
650 words

11 comments

  1. [2]
    Deimos
    Link
    This is very unexpected. I guess they might be worried about Google's Stadia streaming platform? Ars posted a short article about it: What Microsoft and Sony’s streaming partnership means for...

    This is very unexpected. I guess they might be worried about Google's Stadia streaming platform?

    Ars posted a short article about it: What Microsoft and Sony’s streaming partnership means for gaming’s future

    7 votes
    1. Cookies
      Link Parent
      Most likely a response to Stadia. This "game streaming" shit makes me super nervous for the future. There are just so many unsolved problems. Setting aside the fact that latency makes some games...

      Most likely a response to Stadia. This "game streaming" shit makes me super nervous for the future. There are just so many unsolved problems. Setting aside the fact that latency makes some games very frustrating to play online already, there are huge concerns over things like game ownership, game preservation, and modding. Jim Sterling made an excellent video discussing the topic, and I wouldn't be surprised if he covered this latest development as well.

      I would love for game streaming to work flawlessly with no latency and on any hardware, but there are so many concerns and I have no confidence in the industry to solve them in a satisfying manner.

      3 votes
  2. hook
    Link
    Did Nintendo let another project that was offered to them slip through? Like they did let their partnership with Sony on SNES-CD disband and with it let Sony create PlayStation? (I think they did...

    Did Nintendo let another project that was offered to them slip through? Like they did let their partnership with Sony on SNES-CD disband and with it let Sony create PlayStation? (I think they did something similar with Xbox.)

    2 votes
  3. [7]
    The_Fad
    Link
    Fully aware that this is very very early and indicative of ultimately nothing at the moment, I will hedge my bets and stake my claim as "that guy": This shall be the end of console gaming as we...
    • Exemplary

    Fully aware that this is very very early and indicative of ultimately nothing at the moment, I will hedge my bets and stake my claim as "that guy":

    This shall be the end of console gaming as we know it! The end times are nigh! Papa Spencer and Daddy Kodera have rendered unto us the golden age of gaming evolution and we shall REJOICE IN ITS BENEVOLENCE! Weep not for your fallen Xbox, your Playstation, your Kinect and Move. These were but tools; primordial ventures meant to taunt and tease until such time as two titans of industry and development could find common ground and FOIST UPON THEMSELVES THIS ALMIGHTY BURDEN!

    Repent! Repent! Bring praise and gifts that you may be forgiven for your disbelief that gaming, nay humanity, might ever achieve such blinding beauty borne of business and bureaucracy!

    3 votes
    1. [5]
      Maven
      Link Parent
      Yeah, no thanks. Let me know when you solve the latency problem. Hint: it's physically impossible to get a cloud game as responsive as a locally-processed game, and it's only going to get worse as...

      Yeah, no thanks. Let me know when you solve the latency problem. Hint: it's physically impossible to get a cloud game as responsive as a locally-processed game, and it's only going to get worse as American ISPs keep falling behind.

      6 votes
      1. [2]
        Lawrencium265
        Link Parent
        As Netflix has already shown, the American streaming market is a tiny drop in a huge bucket. When all of Europe and most of Asia have cheap fast internet, and mobile gaming is replacing console...

        As Netflix has already shown, the American streaming market is a tiny drop in a huge bucket. When all of Europe and most of Asia have cheap fast internet, and mobile gaming is replacing console and pc with direct ports that I wouldn't have thought possible.

        3 votes
        1. Cookies
          Link Parent
          I live in Europe and enjoy cheap and fast internet, and latency still make some games extremely frustrating to play. This goes for fighting games especially, but sometimes applies to shooters as...

          I live in Europe and enjoy cheap and fast internet, and latency still make some games extremely frustrating to play. This goes for fighting games especially, but sometimes applies to shooters as well. I personally believe that these types of games (that require split-second reactions) will never be playable (at least on a somewhat competitive level) over anything less than LAN. I would also detest having latency in games where there is no good reason for it to be present, such as in single player games.

          For reference I usually get around 40 ms in most games.

          1 vote
      2. [3]
        Comment deleted by author
        Link Parent
        1. [2]
          Deimos
          (edited )
          Link Parent
          That's extremely difficult to achieve. I talked about this in a Google Stadia topic a few months ago (quoting the whole comment here):

          That's extremely difficult to achieve. I talked about this in a Google Stadia topic a few months ago (quoting the whole comment here):

          That's also pure network ping too though, without the other pieces of latency (input, the game processing the input, the display processing the stream data, etc.) and at some point you even start running into the speed of light as a limit. For example, let's say that you're allowing 5ms of network latency in each direction, and let's give 1ms of that for time spent going through routers and such on the way. That leaves 4ms for traveling through the physical cables, and if you use 124,188 miles/sec as the speed of light in fiber, that means the server you're communicating with can not be more than 497 miles (800 km) of cable away from you.

          For the other pieces, a game running at a constant 100 frames/sec is spending 10ms on each frame, but even that is probably too much if you need latency this low. So you need a server capable of running the game at 200 FPS or so within 500 miles of every player, and even that's already pushing 15ms without including multiple other sources of latency.

          It might be theoretically possible, but very, very unlikely to ever happen in realistic conditions.

          7 votes
          1. zlsa
            Link Parent
            I usually have ~50ms ping to a US West Coast. Despite having an "up to 60Mbps" plan, YouTube is usually throttled to under 4Mbps. And I live within 50 miles of the San Francisco Bay Area.

            I usually have ~50ms ping to a US West Coast. Despite having an "up to 60Mbps" plan, YouTube is usually throttled to under 4Mbps.

            And I live within 50 miles of the San Francisco Bay Area.

            2 votes
    2. hhh
      Link Parent
      I don't know cloud gaming makes me a little nervous. From a preservation standpoint it's a nightmare. Any exclusives on the platform will disappear once the servers go down. And it might mean the...

      I don't know cloud gaming makes me a little nervous. From a preservation standpoint it's a nightmare. Any exclusives on the platform will disappear once the servers go down.

      And it might mean the end of modding as well.

      1 vote
  4. unknown user
    Link
    For me this is just no no no no and no. I reject software as a service. I reject cloud services. I reject DRM. This is all of that rolled into one. But people will likely slurp it up and...

    For me this is just no no no no and no.

    I reject software as a service. I reject cloud services. I reject DRM.

    This is all of that rolled into one.

    But people will likely slurp it up and eventually it may be the only option.