PlayStation’s CEO has recently hinted at his company’s plans to further implement cloud gaming technology in the future. Cloud gaming has been on the rise in recent years thanks to Microsoft using it to allow Xbox Game Pass subscribers to play their games on mobile devices. While it still represents a small percentage of the gaming market, many believe it will become a major force in the future - to the point where Microsoft’s current dominance in the cloud gaming space has drawn concerns of an eventual monopoly.
Meanwhile, PlayStation has experimented with cloud gaming in the past, as its PlayStation Now subscription service was one of the first to allow players to stream titles from past PlayStation console generations. It was ultimately absorbed into the revamped PlayStation Plus in 2022, which still retains this cloud streaming feature. However, Sony has yet to offer any way for gamers to enjoy PlayStation titles on mobile devices through the cloud, something that has given Xbox a head-up over the past couple of years.
This might be changing soon, as PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan recently claimed that Sony’s newest cloud gaming plans will be revealed over the next few months in a business call yesterday. Ryan naturally didn’t get into specifics, but he said that PlayStation has been observing the growing importance of mobility in gaming habits and is looking into ways to capitalize on this. “Unfortunately, today is not the place for me to disclose these plans,” Ryan stated during the call, “but we do have some fairly interesting and quite aggressive plans to accelerate our initiatives in the space of the cloud that will unfold over the course of the coming months.”
As mentioned before, cloud gaming and its implications for the industry as a whole have become growing topics over the past few months - especially when it comes to PlayStation’s competitor, Xbox. In April, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority blocked Microsoft’s planned acquisition of Activision Blizzard due to concerns about Microsoft’s strong foothold in the cloud gaming market. When the European Union eventually approved the buyout earlier this month, it did so under the condition that Xbox be required to allow Activision Blizzard titles to be licensed to other cloud gaming services.
One of these services could very well come from Sony, if PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan’s latest statements about his company’s increasing focus on cloud gaming are to go by. While it still isn’t clear what exactly PlayStation’s aggressive cloud gaming plans are, bringing first-party PlayStation franchises like God of War and Horizon to mobile devices would certainly help Sony catch up to Xbox in the ever-growing field of cloud-based video game streaming.
Source: VGC