Gaming
Games
Heard it here: Sony and Microsoft Team Up
The spinoffs could be huge
The internet has been drowned in Microsoft and Sony team up articles, the two super-corporates have been waging a war since the original Xbox for dominance in the console market. The team up would evidently be a surprise for most of us, particularly since the two seemed to be bitter rivals at the best of times. So why have these two joined sides, what exactly are they doing and what does this mean for the rest of us? Let’s take a peek at the biggest all-star mashup since the Avengers movies started.
On the outside, it would appear that the team up is centred around the Microsoft Azure platform. Let’s take a moment to truly understand what Azure is and why Sony would be interested in using it. Azure is a cloud computing service. Cloud computing is a concept that is quite old, in fact we use it in our day to day lives. Ever used Google Sheets as an alternative to Microsoft Excel? Well – then you too have used cloud computing. The concept is simple enough, instead of having a personal computer run applications on your own hardware, cloud computing makes use of servers that we connect to via the internet to provide both software and hardware solutions – we see the end-result which is; the interface between us and the selected application. The benefits of such a system are significant, as it requires less physical processing power on the side of the end-user (that’s us) and greater reliability – as the entire environment would operate under the strict control of the cloud servers, without the cost of limiting what we can do on our own personal devices.
Halo - The Microsoft golden boy
© Microsoft
So now that the complex bit is out the way, what does this actually mean? Well, with a fast-enough internet, we would be able to spend less on computer hardware and still experience high quality graphics and polished gameplay. Ever wonder why it is that a console can output consistent quality over its lifetime, yet a PC will clearly diminish in the same period? The answer is simple, a console does not require the developer to consider all the different types of ram and motherboard PC gamers use, so it becomes a great deal easier to optimise for a solitary device. It’s likely the environments set up for gaming would use the same concept, with the end-user (that’s still us) only responsible for streaming the compiled result. Here is the catch though, I am not referring to the concept Sony and Microsoft are likely to be teaming up for, but rather the concept of a little company called Google.
Google Stadia promises to do all the above and has effectively thrown it’s hat in the ring as a direct competitor to both Sony and Microsoft… and Steam… and Epic… and everyone else. I imagine that most people would identify this team-up as a response to Google Stadia, but I see things a bit differently. Mobile is the future, it may be painful for many of hardcore gamers to admit, but why bother having a massive gaming rig when you could potentially carry it around in your pocket. The lines are beginning to blur – which is evident by the outlandish success of the Nintendo Switch, a device that can install apps, be carried around in your pocket and connect to a larger display. The future is something like a Switch, but adding caller ID and using cloud computing to do the heavy lifting for high performance games.
Stadia - A stage of dominance
© PCGamesN
Enter the dummy terminal. If that term sounds like something out of an old sci-fi movie, I wouldn’t blame you. It’s an older term used to describe a basic device that connects to a much more powerful system. So, if Steam, Epic, Google and the console market are all competing for dominance in one new arena… Would it not make sense for Sony and Microsoft to team-up and use the experience of the Azure team to provide a cloud system that is capable of hosting the intelligence of a Sony system.
Well it makes a great deal of sense to me at the very least… But only time will tell. The biggest question must ask is, “during this cloud-battle in the skies, where are the consumers left?”
In an ideal landscape, multiple organisations will offer a quality service that appeals to gamers, making it a competitive and lucrative scene that does away with lootboxes and micro-transactions and the single state environments allow for easier, faster and better game design.
God of War - One of Sony's finest
© Playstation
Worst case scenario… We end up paying for each minute we play for cheap games due to a single organisation controlling all gameplay aspects and holding a monopoly.
Either way, for South Africans, it also is a little scary – as this service does require very fast internet, like 100mb fibre internet, to use. If this becomes the norm too soon, we may find ourselves in the dark ages. In reality though, I think it’ll take about the lifespan of a console generation for this to catch on, so we will probably be ok and eventually make memes about how we used to have glowing RGB machines instead of handheld devices to play our favourite games on.
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For the leap of faith.
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