Yes, a week ago Sony got more light in the Financial Times (at https://www.ft.com/content/4b410761-78d8-4bec-a48b-79f1373d42e1) gave us ‘Sony chief warns technical problems persist for cloud gaming’ there we are given “Promise of technology remains unfulfilled after more than a decade of development”. This is expected, but in light of certain steps, it is a little disappointing that Sony is not on a better horse. It works out well for me, but that is not the point. You see, these streaming solutions are great if properly aligned. In addition to that we do know that it will depend a lot on a full 5G deployment and in that both Japan and the US are underachievers. Japan is in a much better position than the US and the EU, but those two places is where the actual consumer base is for Sony and they need them, just like Microsoft needs them but they fumbled the ball a few times over. We are also given “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”, as well as “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”. In this Kenichiro Yoshida is not wrong, but as I saw in articles I wrote months ago and in at least two cases 1-2 years ago I mentioned that Microsoft and now Sony are both looking in the wrong direction. They are in a stage where they are looking wearing the wrong glasses and that is the rub (for both). You see at present Tencent Technologies is seemingly looking in the right direction and that is the problem. If Sony doesn’t adjust its scope and its approach it will fall short. You see both companies need two parts, the first is a population and the second is the technology. At present all three have the technology, but the approach to getting a population is skewed and optionally right out wrong. This is a problem because Tencent is taking a much wider approach and they have the option to win this game at present. It does not make me happy as I am a Sony person. Some like dogs, some like cats. I like cats and my PlayStation. Yet I am a gamer at heart and that is why I am not turning my back on what Tencent could be bringing. This might not appease the American or Japanese ego, but that is not my concern. As I see it, the stronger the competition, the better the systems. The Xbox led to the Xbox360 and that pushed the PS3 to become a much stronger PS4, of that I have no illusions. Now with the Tencent system, we will see whether Amazon and Sony will become stronger adversaries, or if they will through in the towel as Google did. No matter how we see it there are issues in that Kenichiro Yoshida is completely correct. How they are overcome or swirled around is all up to Sony. One issue is partially seen in “many users have yet to switch from a console or high-end gaming PC to streaming games entirely over the internet, fearing the lags that can be caused by slowing internet connectivity and server speeds”, you see the error here is the ‘switch’ part. That is not likely to happen any day soon. It is why I and many others have a Nintendo next to our PS4 or PS5. The streaming console will be the third system when the offer is interesting enough. And for a gamer the currency is games. For that all three systems need time and they need to focus on what could be gotten now and what can be developed in the near future. The second one is important as is sets a long term goal and I put the design for nextgen streaming solutions as Public Domain for Sony and Amazon free of charge as to give Microsoft greater worries. There is nothing more nagging when they spend billions on software houses and you hand new ideas free of charge making their investment an anchor around their necks. But that is the price you pay for screwing with gamers and taking away their free choice. They were allowed to do that, they did nothing wrong, but the price is a much larger issue and I was happy to give it to them.
Yet this news article is not a new setting but one that leaves me with questions. Not merely is the article completely correct and on point? You see this is new technologies and a person like Kenichiro Yoshida will give what he can not optionally all he does have to tell, I get that.
Yet the quote “The promise of cloud gaming is still unfulfilled after more than a decade of development” gives a rather irritating issue. You see there has been no information on certain developments and that is fine. The press does not need to know everything (at times they are unaware of anything), but it makes me wonder if Sony made the same mistake that Microsoft has made and that would give Tencent Technologies a much larger advantage. This is all on the premise of what I do know and I admit right of the bat that there is a whole lot I do not know. Yet that to is under the stage of certain elements and as I see it so far my assessment has been correct, as such I wonder what is in store for us. How deep will Tencent Technologies penetrate the western gamers world? At present their stage looks good, but as I stated, it does depends on a few items and what I have seen from some of the Unreal Engine 5 demo’s they are on the right path and some other information gives us that they are looking in a few right directions and that might bank them well over 50,000,000 consoles global within 2 years, which would shatter whatever Microsoft thinks it can sell and it will also shatter the expectations of Sony, but that is on what I presently know.
So enjoy the weekend and remember Monday is but a day away.
Lawrence van Rijn - Law Lord to be 