Sony: Cloud Gaming “An Amazing Business Model;” Cites Latency as Biggest Issue

sony cloud gaming

It’s no secret that a lot of companies think cloud gaming is the future of the industry. Microsoft has the Xbox Cloud Gaming initiative, NVIDIA has the Shield cloud device and more. While more and more companies are moving forward with cloud gaming, not everyone is on-board the idea, and Sony thinks it knows why.

Speaking in an interview, Sony CEO Kenichiro Yoshida states that while he sees cloud gaming as “an amazing business model,” he sees latency as the main issue why it hasn’t caught taken off just yet,

“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.”

Yoshida does have a point. I mean, if you’re playing an online-centric game, chances are, you won’t want to play via cloud, as that will hand the gamer a severe disadvantage. Not only that, but even in single-player games, latency could also affect the time of your button press to what’s happening on-screen depending on the internet speed, lag spikes and whatnot.

Sony’s cloud gaming efforts are still on-going with the PlayStation Now service currently being offered to PS4 and PS5 gamers.

Source: Financial Times (paywalled)

Top Games and Upcoming Releases