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[Financial Times] Sony chief warns technical problems persist for cloud gaming

vivftp

vivftp

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Oct 29, 2017
19,780
**NOTE: Thread title was updated to reflect the new article headline rather than the articles original headline**

Sony chief warns technical problems persist for cloud gaming

Promise of technology remains unfulfilled after more than a decade of development
www.ft.com www.ft.com

Kenichiro Yoshida says 'technical difficulties' with streaming games still persist

Sony's chief executive has warned that cloud gaming is still technically "very tricky", playing down the risk to the console maker of the industry quickly converting to a technology on which its rival Microsoft has bet heavily. In an interview with the Financial Times, Kenichiro Yoshida said the PlayStation creator would still study "various options" in the future for streaming games over the internet itself, adding it could utilise GT Sophy, its artificial intelligence agent, to enhance cloud gaming. "I think cloud itself is an amazing business model, but when it comes to games, the technical difficulties are high," said Yoshida, citing latency — the fast response times demanded by gamers — as the biggest issue. "So there will be challenges to cloud gaming, but we want to take on those challenges."
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Yoshida also pointed to the costly inefficiencies of cloud gaming where servers are idle for much of the day before having to cope with the high levels of traffic of gamers playing during the evening or "dark time". He added that Sony had responded by unleashing GT Sophy in the quiet hours to learn how to beat human competitors in the auto-racing simulator Gran Turismo. "The dark time for cloud gaming had been an issue for Microsoft as well as Google, but it was meaningful that we were able to use those [quieter] hours for AI learning," said Yoshida, speaking at the company's headquarters in Tokyo.
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More at the link.

Thought it was interesting that Yoshida was giving some thoughts on cloud when we also had Jim Ryan recently state that SIE had some aggressive plans regarding cloud in the coming months.
 
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Xeonidus

Xeonidus

“Fuck them kids.”
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Oct 28, 2017
4,283
I don't think their comments are incompatible. Cloud gaming is a nice addition but it won't replace traditional methods. If it does get bigger though, Sony would be wise to position themselves for that.
 
ZeroX

ZeroX

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
21,266
Speed Force
"Sony chief plays down threat to consoles from cloud gaming"

In reality they're describing the challenges faced as a company that has their own cloud gaming service lol
 
YukiroCTX

YukiroCTX

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Oct 30, 2017
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I think Sony has an interest to downplay cloud but having used cloud, it is absolutely much closer than people expect it will be. From response time, the game is absolutely great already even better than my experience than my remote play. MS xcloud only just needs better image quality.
 
RedHeat

RedHeat

Member
Oct 25, 2017
12,691
Cloud gaming won't be replacing consoles in our life times. Maybe in other countries or for those who can afford good and unlimited internet, but ISP's will continue screwing people over. And yeah, they state that they will face challenges even making it a side thing.
 
Ra

Ra

Rap Genius
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Oct 27, 2017
12,232
Dark Space
Should've gone with alternate title: "Sony chief busts out into supervillain M. Bison laugh at idea cloud gaming could be anything resembling a threat in the near future."

Missed opportunity.
 
Helix

Helix

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Jun 8, 2019
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CMA: we put our life on the line for this shit, FOR YOU!!!!
 
LightKiosk

LightKiosk

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Oct 27, 2017
11,479
Didn't take long for people to turn this into a mini acquisition thread lol.
 
Aaronrules380

Aaronrules380

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Oct 25, 2017
22,489
Cloud Gaming will absolutely be the predominant way people play games in the future

That said it's nowhere near being there yet and the biggest obstacle isn't even the cloud tech itself, it's the necessary internet infrastructure to support that tech
 
Lui

Lui

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Sep 22, 2022
2,002
I mean yeah the infrastucture isnt there yet I don't see cloud threatening anything over the next decade
 
OP
OP
vivftp

vivftp

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Oct 29, 2017
19,780
The bit about using idle servers for things like AI is new, I believe. We've long wondered how Sony might help subsidize server costs during downtime so that's at least something. With Sony Group investing more in AI I am wondering what other applications they may utilize.

Maybe more cloud streaming of media to help ensure the servers are fully utilized?

I'm curious, with Sony involved in the Afeela EVs set to launch in a couple of years, could they have cloud related applications? I'm still wondering if they'll install an actual PS5 into the EVs, so also having PS5s in the cloud might... help with... stuff? (my simple primate brain ran out of steam)
 
LightKiosk

LightKiosk

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Oct 27, 2017
11,479
Helix said:
won't be surprised if that really dominated the convo on this thread and would eventually lead to a lock
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Sadly it do be like that.

To get on topic though this makes sense why Project Q, from what we know, relies on Remote Play instead of being a full blown cloud gaming device. Yoshida's comments on latency issues being one of the challenges to overcome has me hoping they're doing a WiFi Direct-esque feature to connect to your PS5 with Project Q to cut down on latency.
 
Scottoest

Scottoest

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Feb 4, 2020
11,368
I don't even see Microsoft really "betting on it heavily" yet - they basically rolled it out as a free toss-in for GPU subs, using the existing Azure infrastructure they have all over the place anyway.

The biggest "bet" they made was simply designing the Series X with a split mainboard that makes it easier to cram in server racks.
 
Doskoi Panda

Doskoi Panda

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Oct 27, 2017
14,996
This is gonna be one of those threads where it's easy to tell who did and did not actually read the OP
 
CorpseLight

CorpseLight

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Nov 3, 2018
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I have almost never had an issue with Xbox Cloud Gaming from my Series S, hardwired pretty standard 300/300 plan. Northeast USA.

Its quite freeing to just load into a game and have all your saves and settings there - and no 100+GB install.
 
daegan

daegan

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Oct 27, 2017
2,905
Cloud will definitely be a thing but I fully expect it to be a different and smaller market. Thinking that it would ever be the major way of playing games when basically everyone on earth carries a smartphone that is an extremely capable gaming device itself is just silly. The people who game on their phones aren't pining for console/PC experiences on cloud. They are a served audience.
 
T0kenAussie

T0kenAussie

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Jan 15, 2020
5,108
vivftp said:
The bit about using idle servers for things like AI is new, I believe. We've long wondered how Sony might help subsidize server costs during downtime so that's at least something. With Sony Group investing more in AI I am wondering what other applications they may utilize.

Maybe more cloud streaming of media to help ensure the servers are fully utilized?

I'm curious, with Sony involved in the Afeela EVs set to launch in a couple of years, could they have cloud related applications? I'm still wondering if they'll install an actual PS5 into the EVs, so also having PS5s in the cloud might... help with... stuff? (my simple primate brain ran out of steam)
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The idle servers thing already happens with azure /xcloud iirc

Those Xbox servers are really good at ML computation so even when they aren't being used for gaming they are being spun up for something else which is what you want with cloud, constant usage you can charge to someone
 
Evildeadhead

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Oct 26, 2017
2,673
CorpseLight said:
I have almost never had an issue with Xbox Cloud Gaming from my Series S, hardwired pretty standard 300/300 plan. Northeast USA.

Its quite freeing to just load into a game and have all your saves and settings there - and no 100+GB install.
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I wish 300/300 was pretty standard in the country that thinks cloud gaming is going to rule the world in 10 years.
 
naff

naff

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Oct 29, 2017
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It's not as far off as people think, also not surprising it's a huge push for Xbox / Microsoft. Xbox - one of their smallest divisions by revenue, but one of the only divisions that get any amount hype / publicity; Azure and Cloud Services one of it not their biggest divisions by revenue. Xbox Cloud Gaming is already pretty solid, even in my lil old country down in the ass hole of the world it works almost flawlessly. If the work on Cloud Gaming feeds back into and boosts Azure pr and tech it's paying dividends.
 
Toiletduck

Toiletduck

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Dec 10, 2017
1,339
Cloud is a viable solution in some markets vs. others. From my own experience using Stadia GeForce Now and remote play, it works great even with an average internet connection/speed. You just need to have the right setup.
 
Slackerchan

Slackerchan

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Oct 25, 2017
1,389
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Consoles aren't going away for at least another 2 generations, and I consider that to be a generous estimate. Mid-century at the earliest in my judgment. Broadband internet infrastructure is not nearly robust enough in North America, let along in Europe or most of Asia, for these companies to support the tens of millions of daily active users required to justify the changeover in function. It's cheaper and better for business to produce consumer technology for local play than spending billions to build and maintaining the dedicated data centers necessary to accommodate the population. We need a great many technological breakthroughs in efficiency, power consumption, and processing power before cloud gaming begins to become something more than a novelty.

When we're at the point in which cloud gaming can be the norm instead of the exception, it'll be a vastly different time and environment from today and one that even Sony's junior executives will be aging out of by the time the technology is fully utilized. It's fun to speculate, but it's not anywhere near time to believe.
 
CatAssTrophy

CatAssTrophy

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Dec 4, 2017
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Wanting to "hold your seat" in the streaming space while you still monitor it and see if it can improve and really become viable doesn't seem too crazy to me.
 
koutoru

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Oct 27, 2017
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Would be interesting if Microsoft ends up using any of these quotes in their ongoing appeal of the CMA.
 
Teiresias

Teiresias

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Oct 27, 2017
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koutoru said:
Would be interesting if Microsoft ends up using any of these quotes in their ongoing appeal of the CMA.
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I don't see how it helps there. The CMA themselves had already separated the console and streaming markets as two distinct things in their decision. They treated the protection of a future streaming market as disconnected from consoles.
 
Expy

Expy

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Oct 26, 2017
9,866
Okay? I mean, it was obvious.

Also Re: CMA, they've also separated the console market from cloud already, so this changes nothing for them.
 
Fahdi

Fahdi

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Jun 5, 2018
1,390
Try the Ultimare Tier on GeForce Now. We are already there in performance. It feels like its literally a native experience.
 

Dekim

Member
Oct 28, 2017
4,304
I feel cloud gaming will never take off as long as there are ISP data caps. Playy some CoD and you suddenly blow through your data cap allowance for the month. Now you're dealing with throttled connections and/or a massive internet bill for using "too much data" for the month.
 
Evildeadhead

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Oct 26, 2017
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Teiresias said:
I don't see how it helps there. The CMA themselves had already separated the console and streaming markets as two distinct things in their decision. They treated the protection of a future streaming market as disconnected from consoles.
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Were Sony ok with the deal going through on the cloud side then?
 
Johnny Blaze

Johnny Blaze

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Oct 29, 2017
4,173
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I had good experience with xCloud and GF Now. But it's gonna take a while for people to get there however there will always be a market for dedicated devices.

Evildeadhead said:
Were Sony ok with the deal going through on the cloud side then?
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Not really for or against, they were against the deal in general but as direct competitor you expect them to fight it. Currently they are not really involved in any form (press or any other way). Basically all Sony cares about is call of duty.

pswii60 said:
As have all the other regulators. So it's not like the CMA is on its own in that aspect.
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Well the EU called it a market segment but all these definitions seem mushy to me.
 
Garulon

Garulon

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Jul 22, 2020
702
xCloud is functional now, although installing still gives the best experience. I think a main difference between Sony and it's competitors is Sony really thinks of itself as a hardware company first, it's job isn't to sell subscriptions but consoles, and it's attitude towards gaming where there's no console and no consumer friction is not going to be positive.
 
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