PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan recently sat down with CNET to talk about the company’s success and future. While the interview isn’t as much of a deep-dive as the one with Mark Cerny earlier in the year, it does provide some fascinating insight into PlayStation’s mindset going into the next generation of consoles. According to Ryan, “The landscape is changing fast.” Despite the PlayStation 4 closing in on 100 million units, he believes company still needs to adapt to an ever-changing industry. And cloud gaming is a major factor as these new consoles set to release.
Part of that strategy is the headline-grabbing deal Sony signed with Microsoft. As many had speculated, this is part of an attempt to be better situated against an increasing number of entrants into the games industry, most notably tech giant Google.
In the interview, Ryan stated his belief that cloud gaming will be an essential element of the next console generation. While we still don’t know a lot about Google Stadia, we do know that it will be a streaming-based platform. Though Google has never made a serious attempt to enter the world of video games before, with the infrastructure it has, it definitely has the potential to shake things up in a massive way. Ryan didn’t outright confirm that the Microsoft deal was a direct response to Google, but having access to Microsoft’s infrastructure does allow the company to be better equipped to an increasingly-digital landscape.
However, Sony does have its own cloud-based service, PlayStation Now. While that service is undoubtedly a success and continues to see games added, Ryan admitted, “Maybe we’ve been a bit guilty of not talking about it enough.” We already know that PlayStation Now will be a part of PlayStation’s strategy for next-gen, and Ryan said he hopes this bigger push for cloud gaming can “take PlayStation Now to the next level.”
We’ll have to wait see if cloud gaming ends up becoming the dominant way to play games moving forward. However, there’s no denying that it’s becoming increasingly important for all of the big names in the industry. As such, these companies have had to change up their strategies, and make moves some though were impossible. The Microsoft-Sony deal is one such example.
Do you think cloud gaming is the future for Sony? Or will we see physical media make a comeback? Let us know!
[Source: CNET]
