Microsoft and Sony are announcing a unique partnership today, allowing the two rivals to partner on cloud-based gaming services. ” Sony has always been a leader in both entertainment and technology, and the collaboration we announced today builds on this history of innovation, The two companies will explore joint development of future cloud solutions in Microsoft Azure to support their respective game and content-streaming services,” Microsoft said in a statement.
On the AI front, a combination of Sony’s highly regarded image sensors will be used in combination with Azure AI-technology to make a new class of “intelligent image sensor solutions.”
Together with the cloud gaming and content-streaming partnership, the pair of companies will also collaborate on semiconductors and artificial intelligence (AI). This will consist of smart image sensor solutions which use Azure AI, and Sony using Microsoft’s AI platform in its consumer solutions.
Also, the Microsoft-Sony gaming partnership can also be a shot throughout the bow of Google, which is preparing its Stadia match streaming service that can work across multiple platforms. Stadia provides 4K60 game streaming when initially launched, and has the power to scale to 8K120 in the future, according to Google. Stadia is a threat to both Microsoft and Sony, and it looks like the companies are collaborating, so Sony has some underlying foundation assistance to fight back.