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However, with the high-profile announcement of Google ’s cloud game service “Stadia” and the increasingly frequent actions of Microsoft, Nvidia and Amazon in the cloud game market, Sony ’s support for PS Now is also strengthened at the technical and product levels . For example, in September last year, PS Now opened PS4 and some PS2 game downloads to meet the gaming needs of users with poor networks.
On May 16 this year, Sony and Microsoft announced a strategic cooperation to jointly develop cloud-based game services and artificial intelligence technology. Sony will use Microsoft Azure and content streaming services in its games.
The two giants that have been in the console game market for 20 years have cooperated on cloud games. Although surprising, it also confirms from the side that Sony faces the strong rise of Google and the development trend of cloud games and has to speed up. And Sony’s product-oriented cloud gaming platform urgently needs to solve cloud technology problems, and for this reason chose to gradually open up external cooperation and try to go faster and farther in cloud gaming.
1. The history of Sony’s entry into the cloud game platform: serving the host game business and achieving the conversion of player groups
As early as 2010, when the technology was still immature, Sony saw the application of cloud technology in the game field and started to make arrangements in advance. Andrew House, president of SCE at the time, (Andrew House) has said that cloud services have had a major impact on other entertainment media, and cloud gaming services will Bring a better experience for players.
In fact, many market participants, including Sony, believe that cloud gaming will have an impact on the gaming market, but it is more in a positive sense than a replacement for the traditional game sales model.
This positive influence is also Sony ’s original intention to invest in the cloud game market, that is, to enable people who cannot experience the charm of high-quality games for various reasons, to experience 3A masterpieces in the form of cloud games through portable devices. Their desire to consume the game itself has transformed the player crowd.
For older players and former players who once abandoned the game, the experience of being unable to play on the old platform due to missing hardware>
Takihiro Osaki has previously stated that he hopes to expand the lineup of works by adding two limited-time works and permanent play works to attract more players to subscribe to PS Now services.
3, PS Now accelerates the momentum of cloud games
It is worth noting that most of the above solutions were proposed in the past two years. As a cloud gaming service that has been in beta for 5 years, there have been obvious signs of strategic adjustment and speeding up in the past two years. The driving force behind it mainly comes from several aspects:
(1) Attraction of cloud games to non-core players
Cloud games still have a huge advantage over traditional games, that is, the extremely low requirements for player equipment, which allows many non-core player groups to conduct limited 3A game “experiences” through cloud games.
Taking the domestic player group as an example, under the constraints of policies and culture, early domestic players who did not own their own consoles and consoles used other people ’s consoles to conduct early gaming experiences, becoming these players ’growth into the future Opportunities for consumers of console gaming hardware and software.
The host is not owned by everyone, but a smart phone is standard for everyone in today’s society. The low requirements of cloud games will become the biggest advantage to attract mobile gamers as the core player group. Although Sony’s PS Now has no plans to launch on mobile platforms, it is only a matter of time for PS Now to enter the mobile platform as 5G technology matures.