Sony Boss Cautions About the Technical Challenges of Cloud Gaming

The CEO of Sony Corporation, Kenichiro Yoshida, has recently expressed his views on cloud gaming acknowledging its significant technical difficulties. However, he emphasized that PlayStation remains committed to embracing these challenges and pushing forward in the domain of cloud gaming.

Yoshida mentioned that Sony is interested in exploring cloud gaming in the interview with the Financial Times. He noted this technology is "very tricky," although he stressed that he finds the financial potential of cloud gaming really exciting.

"I think cloud itself is an amazing business model, but when it comes to games, the technical difficulties are high," the executive said. "So there will be challenges to cloud gaming, but we want to take on those challenges."

The head of Sony emphasized that latency is the primary hurdle for cloud gaming, but also highlighted significant cost-related concerns. One specific issue is the inefficiency in cost management for cloud gaming services. Servers remain largely idle throughout the day, leading to increased costs as traffic surges in the evening when users have time to play games.

Yoshida noted that both Microsoft and Google's now-defunct cloud gaming service, Stadia, have faced similar challenges. However, according to him, Sony has utilized this idle time effectively by training its artificial intelligence agent, GT Sophy, to beat human players in Gran Turismo.

It's worth noting that Sony has shown long-standing interest in the cloud gaming industry, as evidenced by its acquisition of early players in the field such as Gaikai and OnLive in previous years.

Additionally, just last month, the head of PlayStation Jim Ryan hinted at Sony's "fairly interesting and quite aggressive plans" for cloud gaming. However, he didn't disclose any specific details.

You can find the interview with Kenichiro Yoshida here. Also, don't forget to join our 80 Level Talent platform and our Telegram channel, follow us on Instagram and Twitter, where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.