Sony CEO and president Kenichiro Yoshida has downplayed the threat cloud gaming poses to consoles, citing technical challenges like latency. He and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella signed a strategic partnership in May 2019 to collaborate on cloud-based solutions for gaming and AI, resulting in the AI agent Gran Turismo Sophy. Despite this, Yoshida noted the inefficiency of having to keep cloud servers live 24/7 when most playtime is concentrated in the evenings. His statement may be seen as an indirect assist to Microsoft’s effort to clear the cloud gaming market competition concerns that led the UK regulator to block the acquisition of Activision Blizzard.
