The unexpected partnership will pool the companies’ resources to build better streaming services and smarter AI.
Microsoft is helping Sony on its next game console – or at least the game-streaming service that will be running on it: Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Sony CEO Kenichiro Yoshida today announced their partnership and the pair’s plans to work together on game-streaming and artificial intelligence.
The cornerstone of the partnership is Microsoft’s Azure cloud technology that currently powers a huge number of web applications and streaming services – which both Sony and Microsoft will continue to explore in the future.
“Under the memorandum of understanding signed by the parties, 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 blog post today.
“In addition, the two companies will explore the use of current Microsoft Azure datacenter-based solutions for Sony’s game and content-streaming services.”
Why is this happening? The short answer is that Sony is looking for help developing new technology for its cloud gaming service PlayStation Now and Microsoft knows a thing or two about cloud data centers.
